Scottish councils made a record profit from parking charges and fines last year, a motoring lobby has claimed.

Local authorities collectively ended 2013-14 some £33.5m in the black thanks to such charges and fines, according to the RAC Foundation.

Just three councils accounted for almost the entire profit, with Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen earning net income of £15.3m, £10.3m and £5m respectively.

The analysis from the RAC Foundation shows a total of £73.3 million was raised across the country through parking in 2013/14, while the combined cost to councils of running parking activities was £39.8 million.

That left the profit of £33.5 million, up £200,000 on the previous year.

The RAC said councils need to set out where the profits are going.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "These numbers tell the definitive story of who is making what from public parking in Scotland.

"Not all authorities are generating a surplus but overall we are talking about big money.

"Nobody wants a parking free for all but when we are talking about such large sums, local authorities should be transparent with residents and drivers about what their parking policy is, why charges are set at the level they are and where the profits are going."

The RAC analysis came from data returned annually to the Scottish Government by local authorities.

It showed that 16 councils made a profit, 13 made a loss and parking operations in the Shetland Islands broke even.

Two councils, East Lothian and North Lanarkshire, did not provide accounts.

Not all councils provided information on the number of penalty charge notices issued over the year but there were 230,000 in Edinburgh and it is estimated there are around 700,000 issued each year across the country.

Glasgow City Council makes a huge loss on its in-house parking business.

Its arm's-length body, City Parking, in 2013-14 posted a loss of £720,000 after its operating profits failed to cover interest payments. That was its seventh consecutive annual loss.

The city does make a profit on bus fines, some £4m in 2014-15, up 22 per cent on the previous year's income of £3.3m and almost matching the £4.1m generated by the cameras' first year of operation.

The surge in income is mainly due to the introduction of a new city centre bus gate at Nelson Mandela Place last summer.

The month before the bus gate went live, the number of penalty notices being issued had dwindled to its lowest ever level with just 6,215 fines handed out to drivers in June 2014.

The gate, however, has dramatically reduced waiting times for pedestrians on the core retail drag of Buchanan Street.

Speed and bus lane cameras traditionally make money when they are first installed with diminishing returns as drivers get used to their locations and change their behaviour.

Local authorities had lobbied for higher parking fines after it emerged some were losing money on imposing them.