Swindon Council expects to make hundreds of thousands of pounds from driving offences

Swindon Borough Council expects to make hundreds of thousands of pounds from drivers who park illegally or drive in bus lanes.

The council has budgeted for around £560,000 from drivers parking illegally and around £880,000 from people going into bus lanes.

The money will go towards the £47.3m the council expects to get in income from all the fees and charges it levies this financial year.

Members of the borough council’s overview and scrutiny committee will receive a report into all the fees the council charges and the expected income steams for this financial year from those charges, as it considers whether the council “is securing a fair financial settlement for all goods and services in line with market value”.

By far the highest amount the council will make this year is from the rents it charges on commercial properties it owns, at £10.8m.

The next highest, at £2.8m comes from the contribution made by residents to physical support and care services that are partially funded by the council. A note in that line of the report days: “Client contributions are based on a person’s ability to pay. Checks are made to ensure available benefits are being claimed. Minimum client contributions are set by central government. A person cannot be charged more that the cost of the care provided.”

The third highest income stream is the £879,000 budgeted for from bus lane enforcement charges – the fines sent out whereby a private vehicle enters a road designated for buses only. There is a notorious one near the Designer Outlet in Rodbourne.

The report points out that the size of the charge is set by Whitehall.

The collection and disposal of residents’ garden waste is one of the council’s bigger income streams at £1.38m but the note suggests the money simply covers the full cost of the service provided.

Car parking is another significant income for the authority: Brunel North will bring in £595,000 and Granville Street £527,000 – a total of more than £11m from two town centre car parks alone.

The fact that the borough council makes more than £650,000 from timber sales might come as a surprise to readers and possibly even members of the overview committee, but this year the council expects £657,000 from sales made by its housing department.

A residential outdoor education centre in the Brecon Beacons, Plas Pencelli, is budgeted to make £777,000 covering its costs and some of the borough council’s overheads and admission and events at Steam Museum brings in £233,000.

Selling the electricity not used by the council generated at Barnfield solar farm to the national grid realises an income of £171,000.