Minutes:
Councillor Trevor Young submitted the following question to the meeting:
“Civil Parking Enforcement
In 2011, West Lindsey District Council approved a joint working
arrangement with Lincolnshire County Council and other districts to
adopt a countywide civil parking enforcement scheme.
The original proposal was supported by WLDC as the proposed scheme
identified ways of improving the policing of both on and off street
parking problems which had been identified within the
town.
However over the past five years we seen the scheme develop from
taking a reasonable approach to tackling parking problems to a
‘more robust approach’ which is driving customers and
potential new businesses away within the town centre.
On a daily basis we now see a military style approach to dealing
with traffic enforcement in the town. Gainsborough does not warrant
three or four parking enforcement officers working aggressively to
succeed on hitting their personal targets and performance
measures.
We have seen a ‘creeping effect’ which is being
extremely detrimental to viability of the town centre.
On reflection I think the council managed parking enforcement far
better when it was ‘in-house’, and certainly in the
future we need a far better working relationship with the
management body of the current scheme and County Highways to ensure
the town centre has a chance to succeed?
As Leader of The Council, I would ask if this issue could be
discussed by the relevant committee.
The Leader of the Council responded
“When Civil Parking Enforcement was implemented
it encompassed two elements, on street parking (operated by LCC)
and the off street car parks operated by districts. West Lindsey is only responsible for “Off
Street” parking in its own car parks.
I have asked officers about this matter and they inform me that
WLDC have always maintained a middle ground approach to
enforcement, seeking to ensure that the car parks are policed in a
manner which will facilitates as afar as possible, availability of
spaces for shoppers and visitors without being too heavy
handed.
With regard to the numbers of Civil
Enforcement Officers deployed, WLDC only ever have one Civil
Enforcement Officer on patrol unless our contractor is carrying out
training or monitoring.
No targets are set for the issue of parking fines. The only
performance indicators on the contract involve achieving the agreed
number of hours deployment per month and
timely provision of reports.
That said we do monitor performance and our records for off street
parking shows that there has been a decline in enforcement action
of around 10% during the year ending 2015/2016.
Contracts are regularly reviewed as always the officers will
endeavour to get best value for money”
Councillor Young, given the opportunity of a supplementary question, quoted several instances of over aggressive enforcement which had upset residents and asked that the matter be re-considered by the relevant Committee.
The Chairman assured Councillor Young that the matter would be taken into consideration during the pending review.
During the debate on Market Rasen parking the Leader of the Council had noted that enforcement was only undertaken when a misdemeanour had occurred, and Councillor Brockway had stated that it was particularly stressful for officers attempting to undertake their responsibilities, often with abuse from the public and
she would write to the manager in charge.