NEWS
LOCAL AUTHORITY NEWS
ARMY PATROL PLAN UNDER FIRE
SINGING FROM THE SAME HYMN SHEET
A Welsh council has stated its aim of setting up a ‘South Wales Parking Group’ to share best practice and expertise with other authorities. Lucinda Cheshire, parking services manager at Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, said: ‘Our aim is to create a centre of excellence where each enforcement authority can benefit from areas of specific experience, economies of scale, shared costs and consistently high enforcement standards.’ At the heart of Lucinda’s own operation is the Parking Gateway enforcement management system and Permit Gateway
system from Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions (ICES), which her team has used for 15 years.
Other authorities in the region will be asked to pay a small licence fee to take advantage of Merthyr Tydfil’s expertise, while they can also consider using the same training provider, uniform supplier and production companies to take advantage of economies of scale. Cheshire added: ‘All local authorities in the region are faced with similar budget pressures and everyone realises the importance of consistency in the way enforcement measures are applied.’
STAFFS RESIDENTS GET THE
BIT BETWEEN THEIR TEETH Stoke-on-Trent City Council is facing
their driveways. But the council,
something of a rebellion from residents who are refusing to pay fines issued when they parked outside their homes. Families have taken to parking on a paved area at the back of their properties, with many of them claiming that the land is actually part of
10 AUGUST 2012
pointing out that there are double yellow lines on both sides of the road, and that the parking blocks the pavement, has issued tickets. However, many
residents are refusing to pay the fines ‘for parking outside their houses’, and are drawing attention
One said: ‘I have been given two tickets in the last month. We have nowhere left to park. It cost me £70 in parking tickets and I tried to explain but there is nothing we can do.’
www.britishparking.co.uk
to the fact that many cars are parked there – without being issued tickets – when Stoke City FC play at home.
Westminster Council has defended plans to use former soldiers to patrol parking zones around the borough. With swingeing cuts in the pipeline for the armed forces, soldiers are being offered jobs as ‘traffic marshals’ to give advice to drivers and help with deliveries. However, the council has also admitted that the workers will also have the power to issue parking tickets. The scheme was originally planned to be in place only during the Olympic Games, but if it is a success it will continue afterwards. As reported in Parking News, the council had pledged to adopt a new approach to parking management after heavy criticism of plans to introduce parking fees in the West End on evenings and weekends.
Councillor Daniel Astaire, the council’s cabinet member for business, said: ‘We are proud to be leading a project like this that makes a genuine difference to people’s lives. The Olympic marshals will primarily be deployed overnight when deliveries are most likely to take place, between midnight and 6am in the central parking zones. ‘They do have the power to give out tickets to drivers who are parked illegally, but the emphasis will not be to do that unless absolutely necessary.’
ronfromyork/
shutterstock.com
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