Council meters deliver QUT a real world parking windfall ONE of Queensland's major universities has blamed Brisbane City Council for a huge spike in parking income that added more than $1 million to the institution's coffers. Queensland University of Technology, which raked in $3.6 million in parking fees and fines in 2012, admitted it shared the blame after on-campus rates increased "as part of a regular review." QUT said the $1.1 million increase in parking dollars from 2011 was partly down to the City Council introducing metered street parking around the Kelvin Grove Urban Village in late 2009. The rates were higher than at QUT car parks, with the "disproportionate pricing" leading more commuters and local residents to park in QUT spaces, said Andrew Frowd, QUT director of Facilities Management. "QUT undertook a review of parking infrastructure and pricing in 2011 to address the concerns of the campus community and again in 2012 and made some further changes to provide greater flexibility for staff and students and priced longer term parking higher," Mr Frowd said. As part of these changes, flat rate all day parking was replaced with variable tariffs based on duration of stay. Mr Frowd said the changes were welcomed by students. As part of its plan to encourage sustainable modes of transport to campus, UQ will complete additional secure bicycle storage this year. Figures in the latest annual reports, show QUT, The University of Queensland and Griffith University, the state's largest educational institutions, banked a combined $11.7 million in parking fees and fines in 2012. The figure is a near 15 per cent increase on 2011's combined total of $10.2 million. With many universities seeing a reduction in domestic undergraduate student income, including the three mentioned, some have milked the parking cash cow harder. For UQ, an almost $600,000 increase in parking fees and fines, to $5.1 million, eclipsed the $3.5 million earned from fee-paying domestic undergraduate students in 2012. A survey conducted by UQ revealed the peak number of arrivals and departures on a single day last year at its St Lucia campus was 44,178, up from 41,450 in 2011. The number arriving by car was 53 per cent, up from 48 per cent. Email Rob Kidd