GLASGOW City Council's car parking company has secured yet another bailout, a £2 million loan from the local authority, after posting its seventh annual loss.
City Parking ended 2013-14 more than £720,000 in the red after its operating profits failed to cover interest on the huge loans it took out to buy its garages from the council.
Accounts filed at Companies House show the city, its owner, gave it the loan during the course of the year to keep it afloat.
This facility, which replaces a rolling credit of the same amount, must be paid off by 2035.
The company has now lost £28m since it was set up by former council leader Steven Purcell in 2007 as a cash cow.
It has never raised enough in operational profit to cover the cost of its £45m loan to pay for the council's four main multi-storey car parks.
City Parking last year went firmly into negative equity after it emerged that its mortgages were twice as high as its buildings' actual value.
That led to a value reduction in its accounts of £22m, the main reason for its historic losses.
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "City Parking made an opera-tional profit last year.
"As is standard for accounting purposes, depreciation has to be included as part of the statutory accounts process.
"The £2m loan from the council, which City Parking pays interest on, has replaced an existing temporary rolling credit facility which has been repaid to the bank."
Glasgow SNP Leader of the Opposition, coun-cillor Susan Aitken said: "City Parking is a failed business.
"From day one the SNP have had concerns about the viability of the business case behind City Parking.
"The company has had to be propped up by financial support in the recent past from the Council and is hamstrung by loans to the banks.
"It's time for a root and branch review of City Parking. There is a serious problem with City Parking and throwing good money after bad, year after year, will not fix it."
Insiders stress that car parking firms across the UK have suffered in recent years and that the value of their assets has fallen.
david.leask@eveningtimes.co.uk
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