A council has refused to tell a regional daily how much income it has made from car parking charges – claiming it is in the “public interest” to keep the information secret.

Angus Council has blocked both an initial request and a Freedom of Information request from Dundee daily The Courier asking for the figures to be released.

The scheme was introduced last November and was originally forecast to generate £700,000 a year for the council, but the six-month net income total was just over £160,000.

In rejecting the request by The Courier’s Angus chief reporter Graham Brown, the authority admitted it held the information desired but said it was exempt from release for the time being.

The council said: “It is anticipated that the report [containing the figures] will be published within 12 weeks of the date of your request by virtue of being placed on the agenda for the council’s communities committee on 14 January 2020.

“We have taken the view that it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information be withheld from disclosure until that time and that on balance it is in the public interest to do so.”

Graham told HTFP: “In more than 30 years of reporting council business in Angus I can’t recall an issue which has provoked more sustained scrutiny and criticism of its implementation and operation. Businesses say it has crippled them and have repeatedly taken that message to the council chamber.

“Although we’ve have to press the council for income figures at various stages during the first year of the charges, they were released without the need to resort to FoI.

“Since FoI came in, I haven’t encountered the clause used here as a reason for rejection, but it seems the one interest not being served by delaying the release of the income figures is the public one.

“This scheme was forecast to bring in £700k per annum and is on course to generate a fraction of that. Critics have warned it could take a decade to break even when all the cost factors are considered.”