CAMPAIGNERS fighting the introduction of parking charges at a car park in Teignmouth have now received details of the exact amount of money taken so far.

The so-called Bitton Six, as they are known, have spent months battling the decision to charge for parking at the town council’s headquarters at Bitton House.

Their latest salvo against the move, which came into force in April, was to submit a Freedom of Information request to Devon County Council which operates the parking regime.

The request asked for details of the ticket sales data and revenue from Bitton House car park and Park Hill car park, which is also subject to parking charges, between April 1 and July 5.

They claim the responses they have now received shows how little income is being generated.

Louise Robinson, one of the six who has paid an annual fee to park in one of six spaces allocated for such permits, said the figures show ‘a lack of insight from Teignmouth Town Council when ignoring residents and ploughing ahead with the pay and display scheme which is clearly not creating much of an income and had caused so much upset and distress locally’.

But Teignmouth Town Council says the charging was never a money-making exercise and one of the original suggestions had been to lock the car park completely. The charges are to cover the maintenance costs of the car park but the ‘primary objective’ was to allow people using Bitton House to be be able to park.

Historically, the women, who all live nearby, had been able to pay £160 a year to park in the grounds of Bitton House but this was increased to £520 a year since the charges were introduced.

Pay and display parking was also brought in for the rest of the spaces.

Information revealed by Devon County Council under the FOI request showed there were 1,378 transactions in total, which include any tickets issued during non chargeable times of the day.

Payments through the RingGo system were: April 144 which brought in £209.50, 174 in May which was £253 and for June, 132 transactions which was £188.50.

Teignmouth Town Council says it followed all correct procedures before introducing the charges and that a review will be carried out after the new system has been in place for six months.

A report will be compiled with the results and will be presented to full council. But a council spokesman said the FOI figures were ‘incomplete’ as they did not include the paid permit income.

The charges were introduced to regulate unauthorised parking at Bitton House and set in line with costs at other car parks in the town operated by Teignbridge Council.

The aim is to increase revenue generated by the use of Bitton House, which is used as a wedding venue and has rooms available for hire, and enable users of the premises to park.

A number of changes have already been suggested including increasing the current four hour limit which will be considered as part of the review.