Council to enforce parking ‘laws’

A team of mobile parking attendants will be introduced in North Lanarkshire to enforce parking restrictions in town centres.

The council will employ four wardens working in shifts from Mondays to Saturdays 8am to 6pm, and the decriminalised parking enforcement scheme is expected to be introduced at the end of 2014.

Councillor James Coyle said: “Since the traffic wardens employed by Strathclyde Police were withdrawn in 2011, parking restrictions in our town centres haven’t been enforced. This has often caused problems with congestion with delivery vehicles trying to stop near shops, and short-stay parking spaces designed for shoppers being blocked. We are investing in town centres to make them attractive and accessible, and parking is a key part of this. Enforcing waiting and loading restrictions will improve turnover of parking places, making sure short-stay spaces are available for shoppers and encouraging more people into our town centres.”

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The annual cost of operating the wardens, around £185,000, will be met from the income raised from fines issued for illegal parking and any balance would be met from the council’s roads budget. In addition, there will be set-up costs of approximately £120,000 over three years.

The council will establish a shared services agreement with South Lanarkshire Council, which already operates parking wardens, to manage the scheme. An application to Scottish Ministers will now be made, under the Road Traffic Act 1991, to implement the decriminalised parking enforcement scheme and the necessary Road Traffic Orders will be organised.

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