Parking scheme moves on

Residents may be seeing more traffic wardens on the streets if the enforcement scheme goes ahead.

Subject to approval by the council as part of the budget process, the council intends to introduce on-street parking enforcement in its town centres to improve turnover of parking spaces and support local businesses.

As part of the scheme, on-street disabled parking bays will also be enforced.

Parking enforcement officers and a supervisor will be employed to work across the seven town centres to enforce parking restrictions and issue parking charge notices to vehicles parked illegally.

At the Infrastructure Committee on February 7, Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) for each town were approved. These set out the restrictions on local streets, which will be enforced by the wardens when the scheme is introduced.

“Across our town centres we have thousands of car parking spaces but we still see illegal parking on pavements, in disabled bays and people parking all day in short-stay areas,” said Councillor Michael McPake, Infrastructure Committee Convener.

There will be initial set-up costs of £133,000 but the operation of the scheme will be self-financing from parking charges issued.

A start date has not been finalised however the council aims to implement the scheme later this year.