MOTORISTS will today realise that Oxford city and Oxfordshire county councils see them as cash cows.

Today we reveal the vast surpluses the two councils pocketed in the 12 months up to March 31, 2012 – £3.090m and £1.339m respectively.

And just watch those figures almost certainly swell over the next couple of years as the full impact of charging at the city’s park and ride facilities hits.

It certainly shines a new light on previous statements about the cost of running and enforcing parking.

At least both Ed Turner, the deputy leader of the city, and county chief Ian Hudspeth have been honest enough today and last week to say that parking is a source of revenue to pay for other services.

It is just a pity the county’s PR machine tried to spin its way out of the mess yesterday.

The thrust of its argument is that if you take out the revenue from pay and display parking and only count the cost of sending out wardens to police parking then it actually makes a loss.

A year 7 economics pupil will tell you that ignoring revenue and counting only operating costs doesn’t add up.

It will now be down to the motorists and voters to decide if pocketing about £4.4m between them justifies the parking rises both authorities are bringing in.