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Westminster City Council's proposed new parking charges have been described as “illegal” by parking campaigners, according to BBC London.

The proposals, which have yet to be approved by the council's cabinet, include raising the the pay-and-display rate by 60 pence an hour in many parts of the borough and extending charging hours from 6.30pm to midnight.

Campaigners say that since a High Court judgment against Camden Council in 1995, local authorities have been unable to raise parking rates purely as a way of increasing general revenue for the council. The councillor responsible for parking, Danny Chalkley, told the BBC: “We are not doing this to revenue raise, we are doing this to keep the streets running freely.”

However, an internal council briefing document seen by the BBC's journalists refers to parking  being “earmarked to contribute the majority of the £14m” that the council needs to find to balance its books. The council has confirmed that the document is genuine.

Barrister Mark Cran QC of Brick Court Chambers, who brought the 1995 High Court action against Camden Council, told the BBC that the council “may have a case to answer”. “It sounds as if the evidence is stronger in this instance than it was in the Camden case,” he said.

The BBC reports that the internal briefing conceded that the 1995 case was very clear on the prohibition of revenue raising, but that “the generation of income is legitimate if incidental to the setting of charges for other reasons, such as traffic restraint”.

Source: Local Government Lawyer