CASH-STRAPPED Inverclyde Council has lost nearly half-a-million pounds over the last two years through its decriminalised parking enforcement scheme, the Telegraph can reveal.

The local authority — which approved a £4 million pre-Christmas cuts package earlier this month — has made a total loss of £487,987 as a result of its parking policy since 2020.

A former SNP group leader on the council is now calling for an urgent review of the scheme after elected members voted to axe 15 full-time jobs and slash half of their budget to fill potholes on local roads.

Chris McEleny, now general secretary of the Alba party, has branded Inverclyde's disc zone parking policy 'not fit for purpose' and described it as an 'abject failure'.

Mr McEleny said: "Post-pandemic, whilst every other council across Scotland has been able to get their systems back up and running, Inverclyde's is now operating within a massive six-figure black hole.

"Parking is as bad as at was in 2014 [when the policy was introduced] and now money is being diverted from essential services to fund an enforcement service that is not fit for purpose.

"It begs the question to Inverclyde Council as to what benefit people are getting from this dysfunctional parking policy."

Inverclyde's parking system made a loss of £219,465 in the 2021/22 financial year and £268,522 in 2020/21.

The council's income from the scheme in 2021/22 was £167,473, however, expenditure on the policy totalled £386,938.

Previously, the system made a profits of £17,093, £2,352, £58,642 and £17,549 in 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 respectively.

Alba's Mr McEleny said the system in Inverclyde is 'failing on all accounts', adding: "The objective of decriminalising parking to help improve traffic flow in our town centres has been an abject failure.

"The amount of penalty notices issued by the council increased year-on-year pre pandemic, and that in itself is a failure that shows that the desired effect of the system has never been achieved."

Council leader Stephen McCabe made an unprecedented apology to the people of Inverclyde after a raft of painful spending cuts were voted through before Christmas.

Amid warnings of more cuts next year as the local authority seeks to plug a £12.8 million black hole, Mr McCabe told a council meeting: "I have to say, and I've probably never said this before when we've made decisions like this: I apologise to the people of Inverclyde for having to make these decisions.

"It's not something that I came into politics to do, it's not something that any of you came into politics to do.

"We're not about cutting jobs and services, we're about improving the quality of life in our local community.

"But the reality is we have hard decisions to face."

Within its stated position on decriminalised parking enforcement, the Scottish Government says: "The integration of enforcement powers and parking policy should enhance local authority accountability to its residents for overall parking policy, as well as enabling better monitoring of the effectiveness and value of parking controls to ensure that such parking policy is responsive to public needs."

An Inverclyde Council spokesman said: "Decriminalised parking enforcement was introduced after responsibility for parking enforcement was transferred to councils and aims to tackle irresponsible and inconsiderate parking.

"Parking rules encourage drivers to park more responsibly and provides a range of free, time-limited, and paid-for parking options, particularly in our town and village centres, to help promote footfall and support businesses and residents.

"The raw figures don't tell the whole story as we suspended much of the parking enforcement during the pandemic to support the community and to free up staff to support the council's response to Covid, particularly vulnerable residents needing help."