The increased parking haul will come from increasing CBD parking space fees from $5.50 an hour to $7, and a rise of between 20 and 80 cents an hour for on-street spots outside the city centre. Loading A council media release pointed out that raising the hourly price for parking to $7 in the CBD brought the cost into line with what Sydney City Council charges. Since 2011 the number of on-street car parking spots has plummeted by 22 per cent in the CBD, as less space is provided for motor vehicles in the public domain. More space is being provided on the city's roads for public transport, cyclists, footpaths and car share services. Car parking spaces have also been lost due to construction of the Metro Tunnel rail project under Melbourne.

To ensure motorists pay for the cost of providing on-street parking, rather than ratepayers in the council's areas, it has pushed up the fees charged. Along with an expected increase in revenue from parking meters, council officers will issue more than $1 million extra in fines for those who over-stay. In all, the council predicts it will issue parking fines totalling almost $42 million in the next financial year. And to streamline its revenue collection from parking, the council will spend around $1 million to upgrade its meters. The fine for staying in a parking spot after the metre has expired will increase from $79 to $81, while the fine for parking in a clearway will jump from $159 to $163.

The city's population boom continues, with Melbourne City Council expecting an extra 6583 residents in the next financial year across the municipality. Cyclists will get another 500 hoops to lock their bikes to, as part of spending totalling $1.1 million on riding. The Queen Victoria Market renewal project will continue to soak up cash, with almost $20 million to be spent. This funding will include the first physical works, restoring heritage sheds, as well as more money for planning the $250 million project. The council will spend $5 million upgrading 16,000 old street lights to more efficient ones. Libraries will get $1.3 million for their collections, while $3 million will be set aside to restore and refurbish Melbourne Town Hall.

The council is going to spend big on decorations for next year. Credit:Darrian Traynor And almost $2 million will be spent on new Christmas decorations for the city. Fees paid by developers on big projects – to be spent on the creation of new parks – are flooding in, with $2.5 million more in "open space contributions" expected in the coming financial year. The money is paid to the city council as projects are completed and their owners pay compulsory fees. In all, the council will get $9.5 million from open space contributions from developers. The council expects to post a surplus of around $15 million.

RACV's general manager of public policy and corporate affairs Bryce Prosser said the council should be "less reliant" on revenue from on-street parking, saying these spaces would be "better used for wider footpaths, and bike and bus lanes". He said the RACV supports extra cycling hoops for the city, but said "the council needs to reduce the number of bicycles used for advertising, which take up space on existing hoops across the CBD". Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Victorian Electoral Commission began opening ballot papers posted by voters in Melbourne City Council's areas, to elect a new lord mayor.

Former lord mayor Robert Doyle resigned in February, and a new council head is expected to be elected officially by Monday. One scrutineer for a lord mayoral candidate said they had counted about 1000 votes as they were removed from ballot envelopes on Tuesday by the VEC.

They said these indicated about a third of the vote was flowing to Ms Capp, who has been seen as the frontrunner to replace Mr Doyle. The scrutineer working for a candidate who was not Ms Capp said that the preferences they had counted indicated she would win the lord mayoralty. Sally Capp. Credit:Josh Robenstone A VEC spokesman said they could not speculate on the result and that an announcement was not expected to be made until Friday evening at 7pm. A spokesman for Ms Capp said it was far too early to tell which way the vote was heading and a clear trend would not emerge until later this week.