NEWS
LOCAL AUTHORITY NEWS
POINTING TO ALTERNATIVE PAYMENTS
Wigan Council has introduced the PayByPhone parking service, which is now available in 12 busy car parks and three on- street parking locations in Wigan town centre. It’s available alongside pay and display equipment in the council’s car parks, while in other car parks the pay and display equipment has been removed, giving customers the option of paying by cash or mobile. Wigan Council is the first local authority outside London to offer PayByPhone cash payments. They are already available in the London Boroughs of Barnet and Islington, where thousands of payments have been made in PayPoint stores.
A YEAR OF PARKING DANGEROUSLY
On-street enforcement returned to the streets of Aberystwyth after a year of parking lawlessness, following the decision by Dyfed-Powys Police to terminate the contract of the wardens who had been enforcing parking until that point. A council-run operation was expected to take over the responsibility for parking management, but this service was not due to start until now, a whole year later.
Initial delight for residents of the Welsh seaside town soon turned to horror as motorists just parked their vehicles anywhere they chose. Indeed, the one place motorists were guaranteed not to get a ticket was on a double yellow line, unless they were causing an obstruction. A survey by car park operator NCP found that Aberystwyth had become the worst town in Britain to try to find a space, with motorists queuing for up to 35 minutes. With no-one penalising cars without valid tickets, there was no incentive for drivers to move on.
A spokesperson for Ceredigion County Council said that the new, seven- strong civil parking enforcement team,
10 JULY 2012
which began enforcing restrictions in the seaside town last month, would be working seven days a week, including weekends and bank holidays. The council website explained: ‘The main aims of the civil enforcement officers (CEOs), who have been trained in accordance with Welsh Government standards, are to maintain the free flow of traffic and encourage compliance with parking restrictions.
‘All CEOs will carry identification, wear recognisable uniform, and be issued with the appropriate equipment to carry out their duties, in accordance with statutory guidelines.’
Aberystwyth mayor Dylan Lewis welcomed the reintroduction of the CEOs, and said he hoped people treated them with respect. ‘It’s been quite chaotic around town for the last 12 months,’ he said. ‘Something had to be done to restore a bit of order, so this is welcome. ‘Some very irresponsible drivers have shown a lack of consideration for other drivers and pedestrians.’
Ceredigion council had to submit an application to the Welsh government to create a parking enforcement area.
The payments are processed by the retailer through their PayPoint terminal and customers are provided with a receipt as proof of payment. Customers do not need to display the receipt in their car as the payment is automatically sent to the local enforcement team’s handheld devices – just like all other PayByPhone parking payments.
Wigan Council’s cabinet lead for customer service, Cllr Chris Ready, said: ‘We chose PayByPhone because we wanted the flexibility to remove pay and display equipment in some areas, while making sure that customers can still pay in cash for their parking. The PayByPhone mobile phone and cash payment services help us to run our parking services in the most cost-effective way.’
SPOILT FOR CHOICE
A local authority in County Durham has discovered an unusual parking problem – it has too many parking spaces. Darlington Borough Council brought in independent experts MVA consultancy to develop a long-term parking strategy for the town and, in its report, the agency noted that Darlington was in the rare position of having too much parking stock.
Stephen Campopiano, the consultant who carried out the research, advised council committee members that spot counts at car parks showed that drivers tended to use the same car parks close to the town centre, and that the system needed rebalancing. He also added that parking charges were not the cause of the reduction in shopper numbers in the town centre, blaming instead the economic downturn.
He said: ‘What it comes down to is location – certain car parks are very popular. Workers want to park cheaply and close to town, so they take all free spaces in residential areas.’
A Darlington Borough Council spokeswoman said the evidence would inform the content and detail of the parking strategy, which is due to be presented to the council’s cabinet in September.
www.britishparking.co.uk
Tony Brindley /
shutterstock.com
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