COASTAL car park charges raised an income of just over £115,000 in their first year – with East Lothian Council spending nearly £900,000 introducing them.

The council confirmed it had invested £899,347 in the 10 coastal car parks which introduced £2 parking charges in the summer of 2015, including £184,000 introducing ticket machines and electrical connections.

Despite the investment, only 1,100 season passes have been issued, including 173 renewals.

And it has been revealed that the council has committed £55,000 of the revenue brought in from the car park charges to help cover the cost of introducing traffic warden replacements in the county, which is expected to cost £232,000 a year.

READ MORE: Traffic warden replacements to start in a matter of days

During a meeting of East Lothian Council this week, councillors said that the introduction of the new parking attendants would significantly change the income from the car parks.

Councillor Norman Hampshire (Lab) said: “I am really confident once the traffic wardens are in place we will see a significant income from [coastal car parks].”

Councillor Michael Veitch (Con), deputy council leader, urged the council to consider scrapping the parking charges at his local beaches at Whitesands and Barn Ness, which had less than 2,000 tickets bought between them from July last year to last month.

He said: “I would like them brought into line with Thorntonloch and Skateraw, where there are no parking charges.”

However, Mr Hampshire insisted that he used both beaches and they were always busy with cars.

READ MORE: Councillor Dave Berry - Coastal car parking charges struggling

There was a heated exchange between Councillor John McMillan (Lab) and SNP councillor Paul McLennan, after Mr McMillan claimed there had been a campaign on social media and in the press to encourage people not to pay the parking charges, a claim which was disputed by Mr McLennan, who insisted there was a difference between being opposed to the charges and actively encouraging people to ignore them.

Councillor Stuart Currie, leader of the SNP opposition group, reiterated his party’s commitment to scrap the charges if they came into power following the council elections next year.

The council revealed a breakdown of the money invested into each of the 10 car parks which introduced the charges, ranging from the biggest investment – £133,214.01 at Longniddry Bents No 1 car park – and the smallest – £361.47 at Tyninghame.

And it revealed that while 586 of the season passes issued were bought over the first three months of the charges, that number had dwindled to less than 50 a month from November last year, with only 52 passes sold over the same three-month period this year.