Councils admit using parking cash to keep tax down That means ipso facto that car parking charges are going up to keep council tax down. Motoring groups were astounded by Mr Sparks" admission. "I think this devastating," said Barrie Segal, who runs the Appealnow.com website. It proves what everybody has suspected and councils have denied - that motorists are being milked by their town hall. It is an absolutely astonishing admission. The committee's report was critical of how the Department for Transport controlled the £2.2 billion it gave to councils, warning that there was a danger £1.2 billion earmarked for fixing potholes and maintaining roads was being spent elsewhere. Margaret Hodge, the committee chairman, said the Government should ensure that its cash and parking revenue was being spent on transport. Her remarks were endorsed by Paul Watters of the AA. "Once again drivers are short being changed by some local authorities that milk them for their money when they want to park but fail to spend what they should on highway maintenance," he said. A 2013 pothole crisis looms despite the Department for Transport providing local authorities with £1.2bn for highway maintenance and local transport. "Drivers will think it a bit rich that some of the "bonus" income councils earn from ramped up parking charges is being used to cover some of the funds siphoned from the highway maintenance grant for other council purposes rather than being used to help keep car parks and roads intact." Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, was equally scathing. This report is damning. The DfT is dishing out billions of pounds to local authorities with no idea of what it is being spent on. In fact there is no guarantee the money is funding transport schemes at all. Instead of going toward repairing potholes it might simply be being used to fill the financial black holes appearing in other areas of councils" budgets. In some ways Councillor Sparks should be congratulated for his honesty, after all he has only confirmed what many motorists always thought - drivers are shamelessly being used to shore up the general budgets of cash strapped local authorities to avoid big rises in the council tax bill and all the difficulties that would bring. Norman Baker, the transport minister, said: "Parking charges should be set appropriately to achieve a high degree of compliance with parking rules and improve traffic flow - not as a convenient way to raise a bit of extra cash. There are clear rules which state that any money councils make from parking must be spent on improving transport in the area.