A loss of £729,000 on off-street parking cost was made by Wokingham Borough Council last year, figures published by the government have revealed.

The figures come after an outcry from some businesses against the council’s decision to increase car park charges earlier this year.

The council’s total income from off-street parking was £115,000 in the financial year running April 2022 to April 2023. But this was offset by a total expenditure of £844,000 – making a loss of £729,000.

That’s according to figures collected by the government’s department for levelling up, housing and communities and published on Thursday, October 12.

READ MORE: Wokingham parking charges increase 'hasn’t hit local shops'

The figures will add weight to Wokingham Borough Council’s argument in favour of raising costs in its car parks, which it did in July this year.

Conservative opposition councillors warned against the increase, arguing that it would damage business in town centres across the borough. But the Liberal Democrat-run council said rising costs and falling income from council-run car parks made the increase necessary.

Councillor Paul Fishwick – responsible for car parks – argued that the previous Conservative-run administration had not raising car park charges for five years. He was speaking in a meeting of the ruling group pf councillors – the executive committee – last month.

He said: “A tough choice we made was to increase car parking charges for the first time in over five years – a charge that would not have been needed if the previous administration had mad sensible, small incremental price increases when they had the chance.”

However, the newly-published figures also show that the council made a net gain of £1,366, 000 from on-street parking in the same year.

Although the council does not operate on-street parking charges, it does sell parking permits for some streets, and collect revenue from fines.

The government document reports Wokingham Borough Council had an income of £1,885,000 from on-street sales and charges offset by a total expenditure £519,000.

When off-street and on-street figures are combined, they show that the council made a total net gain of £637,000 from parking in the 2022-23 financial year.

Fears were raised that Wokingham Borough Council could introduce on-street parking charges last month after a “mock-up” webpage appeared briefly on the council’s website last month.

The webpage appeared on the council’s “engage” consultation website in September and included proposals to introduce pay-and-display parking charges of £1.50 per hour in some places.

However the council soon removed the page and said it had only been made up as part of an exercise to consider the potential of introducing such charges in the future.

In the meeting last month, councillor Fishwick said there were no plans “at the present time” to make changes to on-street parking.