Council chiefs have defended the £10.5m they have raked in from car parking charges.

Cheshire East Council have made on average £2.6m per year from motorists since it was formed in 2009.

The sum has been criticised by motoring organisation the RAC. Meanwhile, Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, has called for a national review of parking rules. Officials at Cheshire East insist the revenue is being pumped back into improving roads and highways services.

During 2009/10 the council made £2.2m, rising to £2.6m during 2010/11 and peaking at £2.9m in 2011/12. Last year profits dropped to £2.8m.

Figures from the RAC Foundation for 2009-12 show profits for Cheshire East are the 56th highest of 359 councils across the country. The authority with the biggest surplus was Westminster Council in London, which made £41.6 million in 2011/12.

The figures showed that only 52 out of 359 councils made a loss on their parking operations in 2011/12.

Nationally, English councils made half a billion pounds profit from parking.

RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said: “For many local authorities, parking charges are a nice little earner.

“The bottom line is that hundreds of millions of pounds are being contributed annually to council coffers through parking charges.”

Eric Pickles said: “This £635million municipal parking profit shows why we need to review and rein in unfair town hall parking rules.”

Councillor Peter Raynes, cabinet member in charge of finance, said: “The council has raised a total of £10.5m in net income from parking since 2009.

“However, only approximately £55,000 of this figure is from on-street residents parking schemes, which is ring-fenced and required to be spent on highways.

“The rest is not ring-fenced.

“Since 2009, the council has invested almost £130m in maintaining and improving Cheshire East’s roads. Moreover, in January 2013 we announced we are spending a further £23m on road improvements over the next two years.

“Improvements across the borough have included repairing potholes, resurfacing work and major new road schemes to improve connectivity. The council is also committed to delivering new major schemes including the £27m Crewe Green Link Road South; Basford West spine road; Congleton link road and Poynton relief road.

“We are also on track to repair 50,000 potholes across the borough since January this year.

“Cheshire East publishes detailed financial information on a quarterly basis and both councillors and the public can see clearly how much we spend.

“This council has shown time and time again its real commitment to investing to improve Cheshire East’s roads.”