Cut motorists ‘a bit of slack’

3:22pm Saturday 6th September 2008

Comments (6)   Have your say »

A REVIEW of West Wiltshire District Council's parking enforcement, including the use of disabled bays, residents' parking and employing more ticket officers, was discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The district council's civil parking enforcement was introduced on June 16 after an 18-month project to take over on-street parking enforcement from the police.

Three months later, officers presented findings of its progress, detailing where parking enforcement has worked, where it has not and how it has affected motorists with disabilities.

One of the suggestions in the review was to employ another civil enforcement officer to help increase patrols in areas where people are still parking illegally, but WWDC cabinet leader Cllr Graham Payne dismissed this idea, arguing that motorists needed to be cut a bit of slack.' He said: "I'm not happy and would not support the appointment of one extra officer. I think we have a team that seems to work well and they seem to be efficient. Many of them have grown into their job, as it were, and have become quite noticeable faces around the town."

Similarly Cllr Rod Eaton said that creating the extra income from fines would be over-zealous'.

He said: "More wardens will mean more enforcements and more problems."

In Trowbridge, parking officers patrolled the town for 495 hours between June 16 and August 15 and issued 1,351 penalty charge notices (PCNs).

Comparing the patrol time with the ticket issue statistics shows that the level of motorists complying with parking restrictions is poor.

In Warminster there is a smaller percentage of PCNs (8.9 per cent) compared to the percentage of hours patrolled in the town (9.8 per cent), which suggests compliance with restrictions is high.

Districtwide there were 2,765 PCNs issued over the three-month period, of which 610 (22 per cent) were challenged. Of those, 312 (51 per cent) were found to be valid and 287 (47 per cent) were rejected - the remainder are still being processed.

Although the review says areas such as The Halve, Wicker Hill and Fore Street in Trowbridge have seen a reduction in the number of people contravening parking restrictions since the enforcement was introduced, officers noticed that the improvements in Wicker Hill and Fore Street were temporary as motorists were taking a chance of being fined in order to dash to cashpoints or into local shops.

The review also found that there is more availability in short-term bays in Bradford on Avon, which are intended for use by shoppers or those on short visits to local businesses.

The parking enforcements have, however, created problems for residents, especially in Bradford on Avon and Trowbridge, who can no longer use short term parking bays now that the limits are enforced.

According to officers, the traffic flow through Bradford on Avon has also improved due to fewer cars being parked on double yellow lines, improving visibility at junctions.

One of the main issues for councillors was that while on-street disabled bays are now more available, there is an issue about the disabled blue badges not being displayed properly.

Councillors voted not to support the appointment of another parking officer, to note the scheme's progress and to promote the wider dissemination of information on the use of the disabled blue badge scheme.

The issue of parking enforcements has been well documented in the local media. Cllr Payne said: "We have hit headlines when things haven't gone so well and I think it is important that we have all learnt lessons from that experience."