Oxfordshire County Council raked in more than £3,000 a day from city centre parking fines between April 2004 and March 2005.

In that period, drivers forked out £1.2m in fines to private company Control Plus, which took on parking enforcement duties for the county council in 2003.

A further £1.9m was made from pay display machines, taking the council's total parking revenue to £3.1m. Although the money has to be invested in transport, the county council is under no obligation to improve signage.

The news comes in the wake of yesterday's report on parking policy and enforcement by the Commons Transport Committee. It said that signs informing motorists where and for how long they could park were often not clear, with the result that many drivers had difficulty understanding and complying with the law.

Paul Watters, head of roads and transport policy for the AA Motoring Trust, said: "The goal of local authorities should be to reduce non-compliance of drivers. How you achieve that is not necessarily through parking fines.

"People do take chances and try to get away with things, but equally the authorities should not be happy with high levels of non-compliance and money could be better invested."

Oxford resident Michael Quinn, of Bailey Road, Oxford, was one of scores of residents caught out by a council parking restriction which meant he had to move his car twice a day from outside his own home to avoid a fine.

He said: "It's disgraceful the amount the council is making. I don't think they should make any money. It doesn't act as a deterrent it just lines their pockets. I think those handing out the tickets are on big bonuses for the number of tickets they hand out, which is totally wrong."

Income from parking charges has risen by 51 per cent in the last eight years up from £2.1m in 1997/8 to £3.1m in 2004/5. However, the £3.1m figure includes revenue from Thornhill and Water Eaton park-and-rides which became the county council's responsibility in 2003.

David Robertson, the council's cabinet member for transport, said: "If people didn't park in the wrong place, they wouldn't have to be fined. It is our responsibility to enforce parking laws. Our situation in Oxfordshire is comparable to that in the rest of the country."

Earlier this year, the Oxford Mail reported that a total of 48,534 parking tickets were issued in the city in 2004, costing drivers at least £1m. The most frequent offence related to residents' and visitors' parking permits.