Coventry Drivers Paid £5.4 Million in Parking Charges as Council Surplus Jumps 80 Percent

• Coventry City Council’s combined parking and bus lane surplus rose 80% to £3.8 million in 2025/26, from £2.1 million in 2024/25.
• Income from on and off-street parking rose 15% to £5.4 million, while parking fine income fell 56% to £1.3 million and bus lane fine income fell 46% to £1.1 million.
• Total income fell 17% and costs fell 42%, so the surplus grew even as fine income roughly halved.

Coventry City Council took £5.4 million from on and off-street parking in 2025/26, up 15% on the £4.7 million of the year before, according to the council’s annual parking financial data for April 2025 to March 2026. The combined surplus from parking and bus lane enforcement rose 80% to £3.8 million, from £2.1 million in 2024/25.

The surplus did not come from more fines. Penalty charge notice (PCN) income from parking fell from £2.87 million to £1.27 million, a drop of 56%. Bus lane PCN income fell from £1.99 million to £1.08 million, down 46%. Across the whole account, total income fell 17%, from £10.4 million to £8.6 million. The surplus grew as costs fell faster, from £8.3 million to £4.8 million, a drop of 42%.

The council’s document is a table of figures with no commentary, so it does not explain why fine income or costs moved. This article reports the numbers as published and does not guess at the cause. The percentage changes are Motoring Chronicle calculations from the council’s figures.

Why Falling Fines Did Not Shrink Coventry’s Surplus

The parking charges drivers pay at the meter or app went the other way. Income from on and off-street parking was £5.38 million in 2025/26, against £4.68 million in 2024/25, £4.37 million in 2023/24 and £4.11 million in 2022/23. That is a 31% rise over three years (a Motoring Chronicle calculation).

The mix of income has shifted sharply. Drivers’ parking charges made up about 62% of the account’s total income in 2025/26, against about 45% in 2024/25. Fines made up about 27%, against about 47% a year earlier (all Motoring Chronicle calculations). In other words, the account now leans on what drivers pay to park far more than on what they pay in penalties.

Put together, parking charges and fines in the account came to £7.72 million in 2025/26 (£5.38 million plus £2.34 million), against £9.53 million a year earlier (£4.68 million plus £4.85 million). Drivers paid less to the council in total, yet the council kept more, as its costs dropped. That gap is the whole of the 80% surplus rise, and it is worth watching when the 2026/27 figures are published.

Residents’ parking income rose 46% in a year, from £69,000 to £101,000, and was almost three times the £34,000 recorded in 2023/24. Duty pass income, which sits in the same account, was broadly flat at £574,000, against £546,000 the year before.

On the cost side, spending on the on and off-street account fell from £6.6 million to £4.9 million. Its “other” costs dropped from £4.5 million to £2.6 million, while employee costs rose from £2.13 million to £2.25 million. The bus lane account shows employee costs of £316,000, up from £251,000, but a negative “other” cost of £364,000, against a positive £1.37 million the year before. That leaves total bus lane expenditure at minus £48,000, and a surplus of £1.13 million on income of £1.08 million. The document does not say what the negative entry represents.

Bus lane fines show the biggest swing. Income from bus lane PCNs was £337,000 in 2022/23, then £1.86 million in 2023/24, which is more than five times as much, before settling at £1.99 million in 2024/25 and falling to £1.08 million in 2025/26. The council’s table does not say whether fewer tickets were issued, fewer were paid, or the rules for the bus gates changed.

Over four years the combined surplus has moved from £2.27 million in 2022/23, to £2.53 million in 2023/24, to £2.12 million in 2024/25 and now £3.81 million. Combined PCN income, parking and bus lane together, went from £536,000 in 2022/23 to £4.06 million in 2023/24, £4.85 million in 2024/25 and £2.34 million in 2025/26. The 2022/23 and 2023/24 figures come from the council’s earlier annual parking data.

What the Council’s Freedom of Information Reply Shows

A Freedom of Information response from the council, dated 7 January 2026, covers the 2024/25 financial year. It says 115,121 PCNs were issued and the council received £3,013,290.18 from them, which is about £26 per ticket issued (a Motoring Chronicle calculation). The response does not say how many tickets were paid, cancelled or unpaid.

The single highest-earning location was the bus gate at the Hales Street junction with Burges. It produced 24,915 tickets and £699,046.14 in 2024/25. That is about 22% of all PCNs issued and 23% of PCN income, and about £28 per ticket (all Motoring Chronicle calculations).

The FOI total of £3.01 million does not match the £4.85 million of combined PCN income in the 2024/25 column of the annual account. The two documents might measure different things, and the council does not reconcile them in either one.

Councils that enforce parking must keep a separate parking account under Section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. Any surplus can only be spent on specified purposes such as transport, highway and environmental improvements. The Coventry document shows the surplus figure but not how the 2025/26 surplus will be spent.

Can You Avoid a Coventry Parking or Bus Lane Fine?

Yes, in many cases, and the deadlines decide how much you pay. Outside London, PCNs for bus lane and moving traffic contraventions are set at £70, and parking PCNs at £70 or £50 depending on the contravention. Each is halved if paid within 14 days of the notice being issued.

Check the signs before you drive through a bus gate. The Hales Street and Burges bus gate was the council’s top-earning location in 2024/25. Look for the sign showing which vehicles and hours the restriction covers before you enter, as the camera records every vehicle that does not qualify.

Challenge informally first. You can write to the council within 14 days of the notice. Many councils hold the discount open while they look at an informal challenge, but check the wording on your notice, as each council decides this.

Pay inside the discount window if you accept the ticket. On a £70 PCN, paying within 14 days costs £35. Miss the window and the full £70 applies. If a Notice to Owner goes unanswered, the council can issue a charge certificate that adds 50%, which takes a £70 PCN to £105 (a Motoring Chronicle calculation), and unpaid charges can later be registered as a debt through the courts.

Make formal representations on time. If you do not pay, the council sends a Notice to Owner. You then have 28 days to make formal representations, and the notice sets out the grounds that count, such as a signage fault, a loading exemption, or a vehicle that had already been sold.

Appeal to the tribunal. If the council rejects your representations, you can appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which the tribunal’s 2025-26 annual report says decides appeals on PCNs issued by more than 300 councils in England and Wales for parking, bus lane and moving traffic contraventions, and for clean air zones. The appeal is free to make.

Collect evidence on the day. Photograph the sign, the road markings, your vehicle and the time. Keep the pay-and-display ticket or the app receipt. Check your residents’ permit renewal date, as residents’ parking income rose 46% in a year and an expired permit is an easy way to pick up a ticket.

Read the council’s own account. Coventry publishes its parking financial data each year. If the figures change as sharply as they did in 2025/26, it is a good reason to ask the council for the breakdown behind them.

Sources:

• Coventry City Council, Annual Financial Data (Parking), April 2025 to March 2026
• Coventry City Council, Annual Financial Data (Parking), April 2023 to March 2024
• Coventry City Council, Freedom of Information response FOI775126116, PCN Income by Street
• Traffic Penalty Tribunal, Annual Report 2025 to 2026