It's hard to say just how much money the city is bringing in after installing parking metres in suburban areas like Centrepointe.

All that's known for sure is 21 of the 119 metres in the neighbourhood were out-of-service when CTV checked up on them -- and that revenues are so dismal that Coun. Rick Chiarelli plans to introduce a motion to pull them from suburban streets.

The metres were installed in August 2008 in an effort to boost revenues for the city, according to Chiarelli.

When CTV arrived in the neighbourhood, they found most cars avoiding the metres in favour of parking in a towing zone across the road.

Chiarelli says city staff told him a section of meters brought in $600; they predict this year's return of those meters to be $30,000.

When CTV asked to speak with city staff for more exact numbers, the interview was refused.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's John Hua