The Decriminalisation of Car Parking Enforcement

Written by Cllr Bill Gifford on Sun 19th Jun 2005

The County Council has some proposals for decriminalisation in Leamington. The Executive of the District Council decided to approve the principle of the District taking on this new enforcement role, but made it clear that there would need to be considerable negotiation with the County over the details before agreement could be reached.

The lack of enforcement is very unsatisfactory and is damaging business, tourism and the quality of life of local residents (obviously especially those in the older streets nearer the centre). As it is clear that the police are not going to deal with this problem as they cannot keep the money from fines, this really leaves little alternative to the local authorities taking on the responsibility. The County as Highway Authority keep the money from fines for enforcement.

1. The government will only allow the Councils to take on enforcement if they can prove that they can fund the scheme properly. Initially we were advised that we could fund the enforcement through fines alone without the necessity for on-street charging. This advice has changed, and I now believe it would not be viable to depend entirely on the income from fines.

I do not want to see a draconian regime of fining introduced, nor do I want to see temporary street wardens who come and go according to the degree of compliance by motorists. On the contrary I want a high calibre of workforce who can act as neighbourhood guardians, reporting on all forms of anti-social behaviour such as littering, fly posting and petty vandalism and where possible, issuing on the spot fines. I also want them to be directly employed by the District Council. However, I consider the amount of money the County propose to raise through the current scheme is excessive, and I believe we could have a viable scheme with a far smaller area of on-street charging than that proposed.

2. I agree that all day commuters must be provided with acceptable transport and parking facilities. The lower paid workers in the town cannot not afford a season ticket for our car parks, and anyway we need to reserve some space in the multi-storeys for visitors. I favour some on-street parking for commuters in the residential areas with spare capacity, using a special permit scheme (though at a higher rate than that for residents). I do not want commuters parking in the outer suburbs while the streets in inner part of the town are half empty. We need a commitment from the County and Stagecoach to ensure good bus services at reasonable prices from the suburbs, and an agreement over future park and ride facilities.

3. We will need to review our off-street car parking provision, but I doubt any changes can be made before the introduction of decriminalisation.

4. Certainly we will need full consultation over each residents' parking scheme before its introduction (though see below for details of the sort of scheme proposed for Nuneaton and at the moment being considered for Leamington)

5. Research is to be carried out to ascertain how many commuters are currently parking on street. We need more information to help us design a scheme which does not leave a substantial amount of unused parking spaces.

6. We need to consider carefully the issue of access to business premises.

7. It may not be possible to direct all the income generated by the scheme into Warwick District, but I understand Stratford have reached an agreement over certain specific spending requirements in their area, and we should do the same. In particular we need to see a commitment to park and ride and subsidised bus services. Fortunately Stratford and Nuneaton are going to get decriminalisation schemes before Leamington is considered, and I am sure we can learn from their experiences.

We have a lot of negotiating to do. I will not agree to any scheme until I am confident it will benefit all sections of our community - residents, commuters, businesses and visitors to the town.

Proposed Residents' Parking Scheme

Background

Warwickshire County Council has been looking at ways to improve parking and traffic management in the main towns. It has decided that the job of controlling illegal parking will move from the Police to the Council.

This will mean that enough Parking Attendants can be employed to stop selfish drivers from parking in your street on yellow lines, blocking entrances and staying too long where parking time is restricted to avoid paying in the public car parks.

Residents in many areas already have problems with parking and congestion often by all-day commuter parking. This is likely to affect more streets as parking enforcement improves if there are no residents parking schemes.

Proposals

Parking problems are likely to get a lot worse if nothing is done. The County Council thinks a Residents' Parking Scheme is a good idea, but this is only likely to be introduced in areas where the majority of residents agree.

What is a Residents' Parking Scheme?

It is a way of providing more parking space for people who live in the area. All the roads within a scheme are divided into zones. Long -stay parking is only allowed by vehicles that display a Residents' Permit for that zone and these can only be obtained for vehicles that are registered at addresses in the zone.

Anyone will be able to park for up to 2 hours free of charge. Residents can park for as long as they like but MUST HAVE A RESIDENTS' PARKING PERMIT as any vehicles parked for more than 2 hours without a permit will be fined up to £ 60. Use of the parking spaces is restricted to cars, motorcycles and other light vehicles.

Residents are likely to be able to apply for up to 3 Permits for vehicles registered at their address and 1 Visitors' Permit.

Each Residents' or Visitors' Permit is expected to cost about £ 25 per year to cover administration costs.

The scheme should mean more spaces are available for local residents, but it does not guarantee residents a space.