Drivers have paid millions of pounds to park in Reading and have also had to pay fines for driving rule breaches.
Every year, Reading Borough Council publishes its Parking Services Annual Report, laying out how it enforces parking throughout the town.
That involves both the amount the council raises from people who pay for parking, but also the fines they have to pay for parking where they shouldn’t, and driving in bus lanes.
Over a year, the council raised £6.872 million from its parking services.
This information is provided in the report for 2024/25.
When someone breaks parking and stopping rules, they are issued a penalty charge notice (PCN) fine, which can be discounted by 50 per cent if it is paid within 14 days of the issue date.
The council raised £1.8 million (£1,815,889) from issuing 61,835 bus lane fines in 2024/25.
Although the council issued more fines for parking breaches, 61,965, it raised slightly less – £1.747 million (£1,747,643) – from these breaches.
The council won permission to enforce moving traffic offences from the Department of Transport in November 2022.
This allows it to fine drivers for stopping in yellow box junctions and other driving offences; 5,883 of these were issued in 2024/25.
Drivers paid £208,999 in fines for those rule breaches in that year.
The management of car parks and the enforcement of rule breaches does cost the council a significant amount of money.
However, in most cases it made that money back through PCNs, leaving it with a total net surplus of £6.87 million (£6,872,920 for 2024/25.
You can view how much the council spent and received for parking services and enforcement that year below:
The council was left with a net cost of £247,207 for enforcing parking PCNs in 2024/25.
But that was the only net cost category for parking services management and enforcement that year.
During that time, parking wardens employed by the council’s contractor Trellint went on strike on two occasions in December 2024 and January and February 2025.
They also went on strike in May 2025, which is outside the report period.
While the contract with Trellint for parking enforcement officially ends in 2027, with the council and Oxfordshire County Council launching a joint procurement process for a new contractor to be appointed this November.
Reading council was able to make a total of £236,522 for enforcing moving traffic offences.
While enforcement left the council with a net cost of £681 in the preceding year, it received a surplus of £208,999 in 2024/25.
Any money raised from parking enforcement must be reinvested in other transport-related projects, such as better road surfacing and safety measures.
Typically, the report is presented at a meeting of the council’s traffic management sub-committee.
However, the report has not featured in the agendas for any of those meetings so far this year.
