Westminster generated £77.8million in parking revenue last year, making the highest profits from parking fees of all London councils – even though it is handing out fewer tickets than in the past.

The council earned £37.1million in profits from parking charges in 2012 – £10million more than the next borough on the list – according to data compiled by London Councils and presented yesterday (Wednesday) to the Transport Select Committee.

This is despite Westminster giving out 50 per cent fewer tickets during 2012/13 than ten years ago.

It was one of the two only boroughs generating more than £5million surplus in parking revenue, while 13 councils made a loss.

A council spokesman claimed the figure can be explained by the high volume of traffic and parking in the borough.

“We have 600,000 cars that come into central London every day. If you’ve got somewhere like Enfield, where there’s not many people who come to park in high streets, that would take less staff to manage,” he said.

What’s more, the spokesman claimed the amount taken in fines only just allows Westminster to “break even”.

The money taken in fines and parking charge revenue is used to pay for infrastructure projects and enforcement – something which cost £18.4million in 2011/12.