Parking tickets made nearly £790,000 for Cumbria County Council last year – an increase of £431,367 compared to the year before.

But councillor Frank Morgan, chairman of the council’s local committee for Copeland, insisted that despite the increase, parking tickets were not used as a source of income but to make sure roads were clear.

In the financial year 2015/16, the council generated a total income of £789,739 from on-street parking charges up from £358,372 the previous year. By law the council can only spend parking income on traffic and transport measures.

Mr Morgan said: “The enforcement is not designed to create income. It’s designed to keep the highways flowing.”

A total of 29,670 penalty charge notices (PCN) were issued from April 2015 until March 2016, an increase of 3,185 compared to the year before.

But Mr Morgan said roads blocked by cars parked inconsiderately was a much bigger issue than parking tickets.

He said: “Our key issue is to keep the highways clear and the big problem I have and most of our members have is problems with inconsiderate parking.

“It’s been a significant problem over the last few years and it’s still continuing. I get more complaints about inability to get around the highways than I do about parking charges.”

Mr Morgan said this was particularly the case in Whitehaven. In April, Copeland Council opened a new pay-and-display 74 space car park at The Ginns, which is free at weekends, to try and ease parking pressures in the town but Mr Morgan said it was virtually empty.

“Perhaps it’s human nature for people to try to avoid charges but it causes problems for residents,” he said.

Citing Whitehaven as an example, he said: “There aren’t enough places in the town for all the residents to park. The big issue is the lack of parking spaces and people are looking for free car parking.”

The vast majority of PCNs for both years – 12,003 in 2015/16 and 10,831 in 2014/15 – were issued because people were parked in a disc parking place without clearly displaying a valid disc. The majority of people issued with a PCN last year paid within two weeks at a discount rate. Only 1,101 were cancelled after appeals and 1,258 were written off for other reasons.

The county council took over responsibility for on-street parking enforcement from district councils during 2014 and 2015. Costs were reduced by £182,102 in the first full year under county control.