Milton Keynes Council Collects £12.8 Million Parking Surplus From Drivers, 42 Percent Above 2023/24

• Milton Keynes City Council made a £12.797 million surplus from on-street parking in 2025/26, according to a council report with a decision date of 25 August 2026. The 2023/24 surplus was £8.988 million.
• That is £3.809 million more than two years earlier, a rise of about 42 percent (our calculation from the council’s two reports).
• By law the surplus must go on transport and highway uses. The council’s 2025/26 surplus account budgets £3.95 million for concessionary fares, £4.92 million for sustainability funding and £1.06 million for bus subsidies.

Drivers parking on Milton Keynes streets generated a £12.797 million surplus for the council in 2025/26. A Section 55 Traffic Regulation and Parking Account report for the year, with a decision date of 25 August 2026, gives that figure as the on-street parking surplus. The council’s equivalent report for 2023/24, dated 6 August 2024, put the surplus at £8.988 million.

The gap between the two is £3.809 million. Measured against the earlier figure, that is a rise of about 42 percent in two years. The 2024/25 figure was not in the documents we could read, so we have not compared the latest year with the one immediately before it.

A Parking Surplus With Legal Strings Attached

A parking surplus is the money left after a council has paid the costs of running its parking service. It is not profit in the company sense. Under Section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, a council has to review its surplus every year and can only spend it on a short list of things. The Milton Keynes report names them: providing and maintaining off-street parking, public passenger transport, highway and road improvements, and environmental improvements within the council’s area.

That legal limit is why the figures below are relevant to drivers. The money cannot simply be moved into any budget the council likes. Milton Keynes publishes where it plans to put it, and the budgeted breakdown is specific.

The council’s parking surplus account for 2025/26 sets out a budgeted income of £15,573,000 and a budgeted car parking surplus of £13,379,545. Management costs are budgeted at £2,163,455, with a further £15,000 for decriminalisation and £15,000 for surveys and fees. The reported surplus of £12.797 million is about £583,000 below the budgeted figure (our calculation from the council’s figures, rounded, as the report gives the actual in millions).

The same account lists total allowable spending of £14,863,333 for the year. That is the £13,379,545 surplus topped up with £1,483,788 from the general fund. The main allocations are:

• Concessionary fares: £3,949,056.
• Sustainability funding: £4,918,906.
• Bus subsidies: £1,062,276.

The account also shows a parking reserve. The council brought forward £640,314, allocated £400,000 to the revitalisation of Central Milton Keynes, and forecast a carry forward of £240,314.

These are budget figures, not final spending, so the actual split can differ. The council’s own annexes to the 25 August 2026 report, which set out the final allocation, were not included in the version we could read.

Why Milton Keynes Has So Much On-Street Parking to Charge For

The 2023/24 report gives some context for the size of the surplus. Central Milton Keynes has about 21,000 on-street parking spaces. The same report compares that with Northampton at 4,900, Bedford at 5,842 and Luton at 2,361.

That is several times the on-street stock of the comparison towns. The documents do not say how much of the surplus comes from pay and display charges, how much from permits and how much from penalty charge notices, so it is not possible to say what share of the £12.797 million comes from fines. The reports do not break income down by type.

How Other Councils’ 2025/26 Parking Accounts Compare

Other councils have published 2025/26 parking figures too. They show how different a council’s parking account can look depending on its size and the way it reports.

Leicestershire County Council’s on-street parking account for 2025/26 shows 27,509 penalty charge notices issued and £900,127 of income from them. That works out at about £33 of income for each notice issued (our calculation, £32.72 before rounding). Resident parking brought in a further £240,407. On-street enforcement cost £762,186, permit and notice processing cost £298,795 and the camera car cost £43,008. The council reports a surplus of £81,058.25, and says any surplus funds improvements to parking and general traffic management in the county.

Newcastle City Council’s 2025/26 parking summary gives total income of £13,965,352.53. On-street parking brought in £5,800,973.83, off-street parking £4,491,821.78 and enforcement £3,672,556.92. Expenditure was £9,703,479.87. The summary states a parking account surplus of £229,949.12, and notes that income from other parking services, such as off-street car parking charges, is not restricted. That note explains why the stated surplus is far smaller than the gap between income and spending.

Wyre Council went the other way. Its parking summary for 2025/26 shows total income of £932,283.22, up £173,584.62 (about 23 percent) from £758,698.60 in 2024/25. Spending rose too, and the council reports a deficit of £55,265.66, compared with a deficit of £17,625.25 a year earlier. Penalty charge income was £80,520.05.

Derby City Council’s 2025/26 parking annual report does not publish income or surplus figures, but it does show how enforcement changed between the two years:

• On-street penalty notices fell about 3.5 percent, from 130,926 to 126,367.
• Moving traffic notices rose about 67 percent, from 20,509 to 34,346.
• Bus lane notices fell about 18 percent, from 48,443 to 39,493.
• The share of on-street notices that were paid rose from 73 percent to 78 percent, and 86,677 of the 99,038 paid on-street notices were paid at the discounted rate.
• Just 37 cases reached the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, made up of 15 parking, 8 bus lane and 14 moving traffic appeals.

Each of these is one council’s own return, prepared for its own purpose, so the figures are not like for like. They show the range: a £12.8 million surplus in Milton Keynes, £81,058 in Leicestershire, and a deficit in Wyre.

Can You Avoid It?

You cannot avoid a parking surplus as such. It is the difference between what a council charges and what the service costs to run, and it exists whenever charges and fines bring in more than the running costs. What a driver can control is how much they contribute by paying a charge they did not need to pay.

Start with the discount. Derby’s figures show that 87 percent of its paid on-street notices were settled at the discounted rate, which shows how many drivers pay inside the early window. Councils set their own penalty levels, and the notice shows the amount, the reduced amount and the date the discount ends. Put that date in your diary the day the notice arrives.

Next, check the notice before paying. A penalty charge notice has to state the contravention, the date, the time and the location. If any of those are wrong, or if the signs and bay markings were missing or unclear when you parked, you have grounds to challenge. Photograph the signs, the lines and your vehicle in the bay as soon as you can. Evidence taken at the time carries more force than a description written weeks later.

If you challenge, follow the steps on the notice. Many councils allow an informal challenge first and then a formal representation if that is rejected. If the council still refuses, you can take the case to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which in the Derby figures received just 37 cases from a council that issued more than 133,000 notices in the year. Read the notice carefully for the deadlines at each stage, as the discount can fall away once a challenge is rejected.

Finally, look at permits and season tickets if you park in the same place regularly. The Leicestershire account shows £240,407 of resident parking income against £900,127 from penalty notices, which gives a sense of how much more notices bring in than permits. Your council’s website will list the price of a resident or visitor permit in your zone.

If you live in Milton Keynes, the 2025/26 allocation shows the money is meant for buses, concessionary fares and sustainability funding rather than being left in the parking account. To see the final split, ask the council for Annexes A, B and C of the 25 August 2026 report.

Sources

• Milton Keynes City Council, The Section 55 Traffic Regulation and Parking Account 2025/26, decision date 25 August 2026 (on-street parking surplus £12.797 million), milton-keynes.moderngov.co.uk.
• Milton Keynes City Council, Parking Surplus Report 2023/24, delegated decisions report dated 6 August 2024 (surplus £8.988 million; on-street spaces comparison), milton-keynes.moderngov.co.uk.
• Milton Keynes City Council, Parking Surplus Account 2025/26 (budgeted income, surplus, allowable expenditure and parking reserve), milton-keynes.moderngov.co.uk.
• Leicestershire County Council, County Parking Account 2025/26 (published August 2026), leicestershire.gov.uk.
• Newcastle City Council, Parking Account 2025/26 financial summary, newcastle.gov.uk.
• Wyre Council, Parking Summary for the 2025/26 Financial Year, wyre.gov.uk.
• Derby City Council, Parking Services Annual Report 2025/26, derby.gov.uk.