Brought to book

Traffic wardens will be back on the streets of Newark and Sherwood from May 12, handing out fines of up to £70.

Three will work in Newark and will travel to Southwell and villages when necessary.

Although the maximum fine will be £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 be an option to deal with serious obstruction.

The return of the wardens coincides with an expected end to long-term free parking in Southwell.

Parking charges proposed by Newark and Sherwood District Council for the town’s King Street and Church Street carparks are also set to come into force on May 12.

Southwell Town Council agreed to proposals for the first two hours of carparking to be free, followed by charges of £1.50 for two hours and £1 for every hour after that.

To maintain two hours of free parking the town council will continue to pay an annual fee, expected to be around £4,940 for 2008-9, to the district council.

The district council cabinet was last night due to discuss the proposed charges.

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 region that already had wardens, the number of tickets issued increased by 160%.

In another town, they were so successful that there were soon too few offenders to cover their wages.

Newark and Sherwood’s park- ing 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.

NCP 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 will empty ticket machines.

Wardens will wear black uniforms to provide a presence, and will look similar to police 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 they expected an increase in use of carparks.

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 to allow them to deal with more serious offending.