Crackdown on illegal parking

City of York Council wants more parking attendants patrolling the city's streets more often, including later working hours to stop late night abuse of parking restrictions.

Peter Evely, the council's head of network management, brought proposals before a meeting of the executive member for planning and transport last night, to deal with the "nitty gritty" of doing the job on the ground.

Mr Evely said parking attendants should be more mobile, and the structure of parking services more robust. He said there should be better cover for holidays and lieu days, better flexibility of the service and management capability, and an ability to operate at all times when an enforcement presence was necessary.

The council currently employs three parking inspectors, four senior parking attendants and 31 attendants, but has only four or five staff patrolling the city at any one time, which can be reduced by staffing problems.

Cash from pay and display machines is collected by parking inspectors who are accompanied by parking attendants, further reducing staff available to patrol and the time inspectors can dedicate to staff supervision.

Mr Evely said there was no enforcement of the parking restrictions after 8.30pm and the public was becoming increasingly aware of that, leading to serious problems with illegal parking.

Under the new structure, there would be less parking attendants but further posts would be created.

Four dedicated teams would work to an agreed rota to provide improved coverage.

Highly skilled enforcement officers would be relieved from administrative duties and a dedicated team of cash collectors would be created.

Executive member for planning and transport Coun Ann Reid said after the meeting: "It rationalises the service. It will mean that people will be doing jobs more in line with their rank, make it easier to manage and see the service run more effectively."

Updated: 12:31 Thursday, November 04, 2004