Brought to book

Traffic wardens will return to the streets of Newark and Sherwood in May, handing out fines of up to £70.

Ollerton and Boughton will share the three wardens with the rest of the district.

Although the maximum fine will rise to £70, with lesser offences costing £50, both will be cut by half if they are paid within two weeks.

There will be no wheel clamping or automatic towing of bad parkers, although towing will remain an option to deal with serious obstruction.

The Mayor of Ollerton and Boughton, Mr Terry Bell, has welcomed the new system.

He said: “We have got people using the carparking bays in front of the shops on Forest Road, and they are parked in them all day.

“That is despite there being notices up telling them it is a one-hour maximum stay.

“This should clear that problem up, but many people using the bays are shop owners and workers. We may then have the problem of finding somewhere else for them to park.”

He said they would look to direct wardens to problem areas such as Forest Road, Sherwood Drive, and outside schools at pick-up and drop-off times.

Mr Bell said Ollerton should be given a fair share of the wardens’ time and hoped they would not only be used in Newark.

Regular control of parking was abandoned almost two years ago, when the police retrained their wardens as support officers.

Now the county council is taking over, in cooperation with all of the county’s district councils except Nottingham.

Twenty wardens, supplied by National Car Parks, will cover the county’s carparks and street parking.

When NCP took control in one area that already had wardens, the number of tickets issued increased by 160%.

Newark and Sherwood District Council’s parking manager, Mr Craig Black, will manage the district’s wardens.

The normal hours of supervision will be 8am-6pm, but wardens could also be deployed in the evening to cover areas where double yellow lines are ignored.

The carparks company will have an office in Newark and will recruit locally.

The district council’s three existing markets and carparks staff will continue to take money from market traders and empty carparking machines.

Wardens will wear black uniforms to provide a presence, and will look similar to community support officers.

They will also wear caps and high visibility jackets with the district council’s logo, and with Civil Parking Enforcement written on the back.

Currently parking fines are £60, reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days.

The £70 fines will cover offences such as causing obstruction by parking on double yellow lines, or using disabled persons’ bays without a blue badge.

Money raised will pay for enforcement and processing costs. Any surplus will be used for highways improvements.

The district council’s community facilities manager, Mr Jim Besson, said attendants would not be given quotas.

He said: “It is not a money-making exercise. The more expensive band is the minimum needed to achieve the benefits of civil parking enforcement.

“It will improve driving conditions, and prevent accidents and congestion.”

Mr Besson said clamping or towing could be introduced in the future if there was a need.

He said he and Mr Black would direct patrols to black spots.

The county council will process all penalty charge notices through a single centre, employing 15 staff.

Appeals against fines will be handled locally first, and if necessary passed on to the National Parking Adjudication Service.

Mr Besson said because parking offences would become a civil matter, it would no longer be handled by the magistrates’ courts, taking pressure off the police and courts.

Mr Besson said local knowledge would be used to advise wardens where to concentrate their time.