The motoring organisation, the AA, said it was concerned over the amount of money raised by Glasgow and Edinburgh City Councils from fines.

Both cities made big profits over the cost of running their warden system last year and the total amount made from parking fines was almost £10m.

Motoring organisations said they agreed with common public opinion that parking fines should be used to improve conditions for motorists.

It's concerning that the councils are coming to rely on the money they get from parking enforcement Neil Greg, AA

The AA's head of policy, Neil Greg, said most motorists were not aware of the vast amounts of money being made by the councils from their parking "activities".

He said: "We believe that this money is being used to fund transport activities in the city but it's being used to replace other money that isn't being spent on transport."

Mr Greg added: "It's concerning that the councils are coming to rely on the money they get from parking enforcement."

Edinburgh and Glasgow councils said they were obliged by law to spend any surplus money on transport schemes.

They insisted that keeping the traffic moving was the basis of their approach.

Road space

Councillor Alistair Watson from Glasgow Land Services Committee said: "We've always made it clear that the car will always be part of our transport policy but it's about a distribution of road space.

"We can't provide an ever increasing amount of spaces.

"We have to manage traffic properly and parking enforcement is a fundamental piece of that jigsaw."

Earlier on Thursday, Deputy Transport Minister Lewis Macdonald, published a paper on transport indicators for Scotland, setting out how the Scottish Executive intends to measure progress in improving Scotland's transport system.