Drivers are branding the use of parking ticket machines which don’t give change 'legalised theft'.

Motorists have vented their frustrations about the pay and display machines owned by the council across Kirklees.

The machines can be found at 32 sites and leave drivers without the right coins out of pocket each time they use them.

Kirklees have been unable to provide figures to say how much of the £2,043,000 profit made on parking machines is due to change not being offered.

Off-street car parks took in £3,928,000 in the last financial year and on-street machines took in £1,844,000.

The drivers’ concern follows a report by car company Flexed which said that some local councils in England are ‘raking in tens of thousands of pound every year’ by continuing to use parking ticket machines and meters that don’t give change.

In Kirklees many machines charge 90p to park but do not give change, with many drivers resorting to using a £1 coin and paying extra.

One unhappy motorist, Steve Shaw of Marsden, said: “It’s simply legalised theft. When I go into a shop and buy something the staff don’t say ‘sorry, we only take the correct change’.

“Is it that wrong to expect Kirklees Council to do the same thing?”

Huddersfield resident David Clarke added: “That and ‘pay on entry’ inevitably result in more profit for the council through ‘overpayment.”

Another motorist, Anne Stokes, who lives in Wakefield, said: “My greatest gripe with a lot of Kirklees machines is that in my experience they don’t seem to take new coins.

“I always end up paying more because of that.”

Last year the Daily Mirror ran an investigation into how much money local councils make by using ticket machines which do not give change, revealing £6.8m had been recorded in 78 councils as ‘overspends’ over the last three years.

Flexed spokesman, Mark Hall, said: “Those extra charges soon add up.

“While some authorities are inflexible and only rent out that parking space for whole hours and pocket the rest of your fee, others that don’t give change have at least adapted their machines so you get what you’ve paid for.

“Elderly motorists in particular don’t have the confidence to use remote payments via the app, leaving them stuck with greedy parking machines that rob them blind.”

The Examiner has submitted a Freedom of Information request to find out the total amount of overpayments claimed by Kirklees Council parking machines.

A Kirklees Council spokesperson said: “We offer several different ways for people to pay for parking whether with cash, by card, or by phone, so people do not actually need exact change to use the 32 pay and display car parks in Kirklees.

“Our machines are not set to differentiate overpayment so we make the process as easy as possible by offering these cashless payment methods.”

“Parking machines that offer change are generally only found in secure car parks where the pay stations are located in a secure section, not in standard pay and display sites.”