FEATURE CHANGING ROLES
With cuts to local authority services, and ever-increasing levels of litter, Andrew Mourant asks ‘Is the answer a multi-tasking parking service?’
Multi-task I
t sounds like a neat solution to low- level nuisance. As civil enforcement officers (CEOs) go about their daily business, why not extend their responsibilities to deal with other nuisances such as litter and dog-fouling? Successive governments seem to have thought the idea – first floated by the Home Office in 2001 – a good one. Yet what has now become the reality in some local authorities isn’t universally welcomed. Public reaction has been mixed. Some rank and file police officers are unhappy. Unison, a union with CEOs among its members, fears for their personal safety.
Moreover, when the prospect of extending CEOs’ responsibilities was mooted in Essex two years ago, a local Police Federation spokesman described it as ‘a gimmick foisted upon us by the last government’.
There have been some cases where
we’ve been given ‘Mickey Mouse’ names and addresses. And if people don’t pay up, we have to take them to court
Limited responsibility Take-up has been limited. NSL, responsible for traffic management enforcement in 14 London boroughs besides Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh and others, has relatively few CEOs covering anything other than parking enforcement. ‘What they do is up to our clients and their local issues,’ said NSL spokesperson Belinda Webb. The Police Federation’s hostility has yet to abate. ‘We have long-standing concerns about handing police powers to civilian staff, whether CEOs, council workers or employees of private firms,’ its chair, Steve Williams, told Parking News. ‘It raises serious questions about
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accountability and legitimacy. Without wishing to malign those given added responsibility, the Federation believes extending powers to civilian staff causes confusion among the public. They expect policing functions to be performed by trained, independent police officers.’ Ben Priestley, Unison national officer for police staff, is worried that extended responsibilities for CEOs ‘will potentially lead to more conflict with the public’. ‘They’re in an ideal situation to see what’s happening on our streets, but if they’re being asked to police anti-social behaviour, they need the necessary training and back-up to deal with it safely,’ he said. ‘There’s a genuine concern that cuts to policing will have a knock-on effect on this kind of low-level crime. With less police presence on the streets, this will leave wardens even more vulnerable.’
Real hostility
Unison was unable to provide Parking News with any case studies of CEO members being assaulted as a result of tackling litter louts or other low level anti- social behaviour. But the hostility is real, says Ken Byng, parking services manager for Southampton City Council.
‘It’s been quite a culture shock for some members of the public who have been caught,’ he said. ‘Some have been quite abusive and threatening. So far there have been insults rather than physical assault, but some of those make fairly horrendous reading.’
The uniforms of Southampton CEOs make it clear that they have
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