WAVERLEY Borough Council has pocketed more than £500,000 in overpayments to the borough’s car parking machines over the past six years, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.

The data, obtained by Farnham resident Rupert Englander, reveals Waverley raked in a total of £562,000 between 2010 and 2016, as a result of ticket machines in the borough’s council-run car parks not giving out change.

This includes £125,000 lost change in 2015/16 alone - marking a 15 per cent increase on the previous year’s revenue of £108,000, and almost double the £73,000 added to Waverley’s coffers in 2010/11.

Mr Englander told The Herald: “As a resident in Farnham it has always annoyed me that the council-provided car parks do not give change, something that really isn’t beyond today’s technology capability.

“So I was astonished to be informed that the extra revenue derived from not providing change amounts to well over half a million pounds (£562,000) in six years.

“The rate of increase year on year varies dramatically, but revenue from this ‘lost change’ has almost doubled in that period. This is in addition to the significant increase in parking prices over the last few years.

“This revenue could easily be used to fund the implementation of machines that provide change, and you have to question what impact on the already struggling high street this is having.

“I think it’s time Waverley Borough Council installed machines that provide change to people parking in council run car parks, and also explicitly state what they have done with the extra revenue derived from this underhand source, unless they plan to use it to install machines that give change.”

Responding, a Waverley spokesperson said: “The 2017/18 budget allocated £430,000 for improvements, including maintenance works and upgrading the machines to offer more modern payment options and to take the new £1 coin, which came into circulation in March.

“The upgrades also included installing card payment machines in our busiest car parks – the first of which was activated on Monday, May 15 as part of a check in check out trial in Stocklund Square in Cranleigh – on top of offering phone payments through RingGo. The rest of the card payment machines will be activated during in phased stages over the next five months.

“Using phone and card payment options will allow drivers to pay the exact amount of money required for their stay, to the nearest tariff band, without the need for giving back change.

“With the council facing tight budget constraints and with more people preferring to use card and phone payments over cash payments, we feel investing in modern technologies will bring greater benefits rather than adapting machines to give change.”