Councils are raking in £1.5billion a year on parking - including more than £1billion on fines alone - it has been revealed.

Brighton and Hove Council has made the most money outside London with £28.7million, shortly followed by Nottingham city council with £20.9m and Birmingham city council with £18.3m.  

The five authorities with the highest revenue were all in London, led by Westminster with a whopping £76.4million.

This was followed by Kensington and Chelsea (£46.1m), Camden (£38.1m), Hammersmith and Fulham (£35.6m), and Wandsworth (£30.4m).   A report from the RAC found total income from on-street tickets and permits totalled £483m, a further £338m came from on-street parking charges and £682m from off-street charges and penalties, such as car park fines. 

This represents a four per cent increase from the year before.  

Parking income included money from meters, residents' parking permits, business parking permits and penalties for parking offences. Overall, parking income for English councils outside London amounted to £906 million, a five per cent increase on 2014-15. 

Brighton and Hove council was in top spot with the authority making £28.7m in parking income. 

This was closely followed by Nottingham city council, with £20.9 million and Birmingham city council with £18.3 million. 

A British mother-of-three died from a blood clot after marrying a US killer and jetting back and forth to America to visit him in jail, an inquest heard.

Divorcee Kay Frazier, 50, from Wigan, began writing to Gary Frazier online in 2010 and said when they married in 2012: 'I feel safer with him than any other person.'

The killer, 37, is currently not eligible for parole from his Nebraska jail until 2024 after shooting two people, killing one, during a row when aged 19.

Over five years the couple exchanged 12,000 letters with Kay sending him around 12 love letters every day.

She later flew from Greater Manchester to marry Frazier in his cell and give him a 'passionate kiss' but said they were not allowed to consummate their relationship.

An inquest into her death has heard just seven years before he could be released at the earliest from his 49 year sentence, she has unexpectedly died from surgery following a thrombosis - the medical term for a blood clot. The hearing was told her death was also down to complications from risky surgery, deemed by doctors the only chance to save her life.

Coroner Jennifer Leeming heard she was rushed to Salford Royal Hospital from Wigan Infirmary last May 9 with serious headaches.

Radiologist Toby Williams said there was 'nothing left to lose' in performing the blood clot-removing 'thrombectomy' treatment.

The consultant stressed although it has a 1-10 per cent mortality rate, he was '100 per cent sure' she would die without it.

He said: 'We have treated thrombosis like this before with success.'

But as Mr Williams tried in vain to remove the clot, Mrs Frazier suffered a ruptured artery causing a bleed in her brain.

She lost all brain activity by 7pm on May 10th, finally passing away on May 11th.

Coroner's officer Peter Yates confirmed he had repeatedly tried to contact her children to tell them about the inquest but with no success.

There is no explanation as to why Mrs Frazier developed the blood clot, which is believed to have occurred naturally.

In a 2014 interview, Mrs Frazier admitted friends think 'I'm mad' after 'a normal woman from Wigan ended up marrying a murderer from Nebraska.'

She told how she first married aged 17, had three sons now aged 31, 30 and 25, but divorced in 2004.

In 2010, she started watching documentaries about prisons and saw how US inmates would go online to find a pen pal.

She explained: 'Gary sounded confident and interesting. He got mixed up with the wrong crowd when a teenager.

'One night he and some friends got into an argument with some other lads. Gary shot two, one of them died.

'Prison saved him. If he hadn't been locked up, he would be dead by now.'

Admitting flying out to see him the first time was 'madness' she said: 'I was outside a prison in the middle of Nebraska visiting a murderer.

A stunt driver who was working on the set of the upcoming Deadpool sequel starring Ryan Reynolds was killed in a motorcycle crash on Monday morning. 

Global News reports that the female victim lost control of the motorcycle she was riding while filming a sequence for the movie shortly after 8am, causing her to ram the bike into the glass-enclosed lobby of the Shaw Tower in Vancouver.

Paramedics quickly arrived at the waterfront office building in the British Columbia city and were able to pull the woman from the wreckage and get her to the hospital, but her injuries were to severe.

Audio from the 911 call made after the crash reveals that the woman was not moving following the crash, with one man stating she flew across the street and remianed airborne' as she went through the glass.

The rescue vehicle was on site for 45 minutes after loading in the victim and drove off without using its sirens according to CTV Vancouver. 'VPD officers are at the scene, along with officers from WorkSafeBC. More information will be released when it is available.'

WokeSafeBC, who has five workers investigating the crash, also released a statement on Monday.

'WorkSafeBC was contacted by the Vancouver Police Department this morning at 8:31 a.m. regarding a serious incident in the 1000 Block of West Waterfront Road, Van B.C. WorkSafeBC has five officers at the incident site,' said the agency. 

'Two officers are inspecting the site for immediate occupational health and safety issues. Three officers are investigating the incident for cause and prevention under the Workers’ Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.'

Eyewitnesses to the horrific tragedy claimed that they did not hear the motorcycle break before the crash.

'People were running on the sidewalk, the motorcycle comes flying across the street, looks like from a ramp because it was in the air,' said one individual.

'[The victim was] standing on the bike, slams into that building, clearly hit and out-of-control and clearly not planned.'

That person then added: 'It was so out-of-control, it looked like an accident.'

Another witness said they watched as the bike went 'out-of-control,' saying it then 'flew right into the building.'

Sharmina Kermalli said she had just walked into a Starbucks next door to where the accident happened when she heard a loud crash. She ran out of the coffee shop and saw glass still falling on the body of the woman. 'VPD officers are at the scene, along with officers from WorkSafeBC. More information will be released when it is available.'

WokeSafeBC, who has five workers investigating the crash, also released a statement on Monday.

'WorkSafeBC was contacted by the Vancouver Police Department this morning at 8:31 a.m. regarding a serious incident in the 1000 Block of West Waterfront Road, Van B.C. WorkSafeBC has five officers at the incident site,' said the agency. 

'Two officers are inspecting the site for immediate occupational health and safety issues. Three officers are investigating the incident for cause and prevention under the Workers’ Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.'

Eyewitnesses to the horrific tragedy claimed that they did not hear the motorcycle break before the crash.

'People were running on the sidewalk, the motorcycle comes flying across the street, looks like from a ramp because it was in the air,' said one individual.

'[The victim was] standing on the bike, slams into that building, clearly hit and out-of-control and clearly not planned.'

That person then added: 'It was so out-of-control, it looked like an accident.'

Another witness said they watched as the bike went 'out-of-control,' saying it then 'flew right into the building.'

Sharmina Kermalli said she had just walked into a Starbucks next door to where the accident happened when she heard a loud crash. She ran out of the coffee shop and saw glass still falling on the body of the woman. 

A breast cancer wonder drug is being used in IVF to boost success rates for older women.

Tamoxifen is normally given to patients who have undergone surgery for breast cancer to prevent tumours growing back.

But a British clinic is pioneering its use in fertility treatment to help women over 40 who have a limited number of eggs.

Normally older women with a low ovarian reserve have to use donor eggs from someone else, meaning they aren't biologically related to the baby. But early trials have shown that if these women were given Tamoxifen, approximately one in five were able to have a baby using their own eggs.

The technique is being tried by Professor Geeta Nargund, medical director of Create Fertility, which has branches across the UK.

Professor Nargund carried out a study at a London clinic earlier this year on 31 women with low ovarian reserve whose average age was 40,

They were given daily Tamoxifen pills for between five and ten days. The women underwent 54 cycles of IVF between them using fresh and frozen eggs. The results – first presented at the British Fertility Conference in Edinburgh in January - showed six out of these 31 women went on to have babies, an average rate of one in five.

Professor Nargund says her clinic has since used Tamoxifen in 100 cycles and the success rate has matched that of the trial.Tamoxifen costs just 6p a day and researchers believe it works for fertility treatment by lowering oestrogen levels.

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he thought about killing himself while battling pneumonia that was so severe doctors told him he could have died.

The Grand Tour presenter fell ill earlier this month while on the Spanish island of Majorca and has opened up about his time in hospital in his Sunday times column.

He wrote that he had spent 'three nights spent spasming in my bed' before a doctor sent him for tests at the hospital. Pneumonia is an infection which causes the normal air-containing spaces within the lungs (called the alveoli) and the smaller bronchial tubes to become inflamed and fill with fluid.

Special white blood cells then travel to the lungs to fight off the infection. This all leads to impairment of the lungs' main function, which is to get oxygen from the air into the bloodstream and then around the whole body.

Pneumonia can sometimes be a complication that arises from repeated or prolonged bouts of flu, so it's important to be aware of its symptoms, particularly at this time of year. It can be a very serious health condition and can lead to death if not treated promptly. He writes: 'I'm sure many of you will have found yourself in hospital, not having planned to be there.

'But for me it was a new experience. And a weird one.

'Because I was in a room with nothing on the walls except wallpaper, and most of that was coming off.'

Clarkson has now left hospital, but faces two months of recuperation.

He added: 'This is the problem with hospitals. People who stay in them become institutionalised and incapable of speaking about anything other than what nurse brought what drug at what time.

'Boredom turns them into bores. 

Labour last night pledged to back a government clampdown on ‘crack cocaine’ gambling machines.

The party’s deputy leader and shadow culture secretary Tom Watson said the party supported efforts to limit the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals.

A government review is considering reforms to the machines which offer roulette, bingo, poker and other casino-style games in bookmakers shops.

The Mail revealed two weeks ago that the review had been kicked into the long grass amid opposition from Chancellor Philip Hammond.

Treasury officials are understood to be concerned that cutting the maximum stake to £2, as campaigners argue, would blow a £400million hole in tax receipts.

In a letter to Culture Secretary Karen Bradley, Mr Watson wrote: ‘If you need Labour votes to get this proposal through against the wishes of some of your backbenchers, we will provide them.

‘I am confident that between us, we have the numbers in Parliament to curb these addictive machines and the social and health problems which come with them.

‘I urge you to hold firm in your struggle with the Treasury on this. There are more than 34,000 FOBT machines in bookmakers’ across the country, and their numbers have doubled in a decade.

Gamblers can lose as much as £100 every 20 seconds.

In his letter, Mr Watson said the revenues were far outstripped by the £1.2billion cost of problem gambling because of ill-health, crime and homelessness.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to cut the maximum stake to £2 and legislate to ‘increase the delay between spins to reduce the addictive nature of the games.’

Last week the Church of England urged ministers to push ahead with their crackdown, and in Saturday’s Mail, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith branded them a ‘tax on the poor'.

One bookmaker, Paddy Power Betfair, also said it was open to reform.

Chief executive Breon Corcoran said he was 'almost ambivalent' about slashing the maximum stake.

He told trade magazine Gambling Compliance: 'The only thing we've asked the Government for is clarity.'

A review by the Centre for Social Justice revealed £1.7billion is lost on the machines every year.

It said: 'Stakes should be cut off beyond the £2 mark. This will protect users from falling into problem gambling, thus nullifying the corrosive effects that evidence has shown FOBTs to have in perpetuating poor mental health, violence and family breakdown.

A teacher who was flown back to the UK after contracting E.coli in Turkey has died.

Caroline Hope arrived back in Glasgow last month following a crowdfunding appeal for a medical evacuation.

Her mother Catherine Hope confirmed she died today at the city's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Ms Hope, who had been living in Turkey for four years, picked up the infection during surgery to treat advanced colon cancer in June. The 37-year-old English teacher had decided to return home to Scotland after receiving her cancer diagnosis in January. But complications from the surgery left her fighting for her life in Medical Park Hospital in Izmir, Turkey.

Desperate to bring her home, her family and friends raised more than £31,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to pay for a private medical evacuation, because there are strict rules around repatriations for medical reasons. The mother, of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, thanked everyone who contributed to the appeal and all the staff on the high dependency units at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital who cared for her daughter.

'I would just like to thank all the people who put money in towards bringing Caroline home,' she told the Press Association.

'She was so grateful to be back in Scotland.

Ant McPartlin has spoken frankly about his terrifying descent into addiction to morphine and other powerful prescription drugs that he started taking for knee pain.

At the height of it, the TV presenter was rushed to hospital in a drug-induced ‘psychosis’ after taking tramadol, morphine and alcohol.

‘It was insane,’ he said. ‘It sends you crazy. It was to the point of hearing things, seeing things in the garden.’

Speaking to The Sun on Sunday about his secret two-year addiction, he added: ‘I was at the point where anything – prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs – I would take. And take them with alcohol, which is ridiculous. The doctors told me I could have killed myself.’

He revealed that he had to be rushed to hospital at 5am after bingeing on drugs while recovering from a knee operation in June. He was in such a bad state that he had to phone his wife Lisa upstairs at home to call an ambulance.

It was after this that McPartlin, 41, decided to tell Lisa, 40, and his co-star and best friend Declan Donnelly about his addiction and go into rehab.

He said that at first he did not believe he had a problem but ended up hiding his addiction because he was embarrassed about it.

McPartlin, who presents Saturday Night Takeaway, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and Britain’s Got Talent with Donnelly, told the newspaper that his problems began after he damaged his knee in 2014 and he started using prescription painkillers.  He revealed that he became addicted to tramadol – an opioid with similar properties to morphine – within weeks of starting the medication, and had to take more and more to get through work commitments.

And when he flew to the US for the Saturday Night Takeaway series finale last year, American doctors prescribed more painkillers. ‘I don’t know what they were but they were hell of a lot stronger,’ he said. ‘I brought them home with us and was taking them as well.’

McPartlin finally had excruciating knee surgery in June but while he was recuperating his addiction began to spiral out of control.

In addition to painkillers, he was also taking sleeping pills and drinking heavily. 

Drivers are racking up £200,000 in fines a day by passing through a single junction in the heart of central London. 

Seven cameras have been focused on Bank Junction in order to catch out motorists, with 1,500 captured passing through the road each day.

All vehicles, apart from buses and bikes, were banned from using the junction last year to 'improve safety' and cut down on accidents. The snares are taking in around £16,228 an hour with fines rising as high as £50million by the end of the year, reports the Daily star. 

Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke has accused the City of London  of 'fleecing' motorists - rather than focusing on safety.

He said: 'Cameras are simply there to raise revenue cause big resentment and are incredibly unfair.'

However, City of London said the measure will cut down on crashes, reduce pollution and congestion.   

A spokesman said: 'Our number one priority for the experimental scheme at Bank junction is to improve safety. 

Two men have been shot dead during a violent confrontation between gangs and police investigating after a British mother was shot in central Brazil 

Officers are probing the shooting of tourist Eloise Dixon, from Bromley, south east London, and one man has been arrested, according to reports.

Mrs Dixon was shot by gangsters in Brazil after her husband mistakenly drove their car off the main road and into a favela.

Two police officers who came to her aid said her life was saved by her 13-year-old daughter Isabella, who stemmed the flow of blood with her hand as they waited for help. Four men were hit during the shootout and two died from their injuries.

One of the wounded men was named as Fabricio Wesley Ferreira, also known as WL, and is said to be the drug boss in area.

The other injured criminal identified as Jackson Lima Ferreira, also known as JK, is alleged have been involved in the shooting last Sunday.

Mrs Dixon was hit by two bullets, one passed through her abdomen and the other grazed across her chest, when she was with her husband and three daughters in search for water.

The police operation took place in the Sapinhatuba community, which is seven miles away and some 14 minutes drive from the Agua Santa favela.  

Police reported the operation seized 120 packets of marijuana, one kilo of crack cocaine, two 9mm guns with ammunition, one 40mm gun with bullets, a two-way communication radio walkie talkie, two small precision weighing scales and a vehicle which had been tampered with and cloned.

Ferreira, known in the area as the drug kingpin, is linked to the assault against the tourists but not accused of the shooting.

Both wounded bandits have been taken to a local hospital and remain under police guard.

According to A Voz da Cidade, an Agra dos Reis news agency, teams of police were deployed at six yesterday morning.

The battalions split up and invaded various communities including Sapinhatuba, Camorim Grande, Moreno do Moreno and Agua Santa where the Mrs Dixon was shot.