Councils should decide how to manage parking policies, according to the Local Government Association.

New guidelines from the Department for Transport, have urged councils to cut down on clamping and ban setting targets for revenue raising from parking fines.

‘Many councils across the country have already adopted a persistent offender-only approach, and cannot use parking as a revenue-raising exercise,' said an LGA spokesman.

‘Money raised from fixed-penalty charges is retained locally for funding road maintenance, streetlighting and enforcement.'