Parking patrol

Wardens are due to start patrolling Bingham’s carparks a week today to try to stop people parking illegally.

Rushcliffe Borough Council’s civil enforcement officers will issue fixed-penalty notices for illegal parking, such as inappropriate use of disabled parking bays or parking outside of bays.

The officers will patrol in its carparks at Newgate Street, Needham Street and Union Street and for parking bays around Bingham Market Place.

It is just over a year ago that the borough council took control of enforcing parking regulations as Civil Parking Enforcement was introduced across Nottinghamshire.

It meant illegal parking was no longer a policing matter, and parking fines became a civil debt paid to the council.

Until Friday, this has applied only to on-street parking in Bingham, with most tickets being issued to people parking illegally on Market Street.

The council is introducing carpark orders in seven carparks.

The others are at Bunny Lane and Church Drive, Keyworth, and at the health centre and Walkers Yard, Radcliffe.

A borough council spokesman said the aim was to improve the parking situation for residents.

Mr Norman Hanson, of the Bingham pressure group Community Concern, said they welcomed the news, in theory.

He said: “We support warden control of illegal parking where traffic congestion is the issue or disabled bays are used improperly but we also believe that more parking spaces must be provided.

“However, we still do not have a cohesive approach to Bingham’s parking problems and look forward to hearing the borough and county council proposals.”

Mr Hanson said before the introduction of civil parking enforcement the group asked for additional carpark spaces in the town.

He said: “This hasn’t happened and during the period of the trial there has been increased parking in residential areas.

“We believe this is a consequence of the wardens’ actions.

“We also expect this to get worse when wardens police the off-street carparks.”

In June last year, the borough council’s cabinet unanimously voted to delay introducing pay and display machines in its carparks in Bingham and Radcliffe, and to look at the options for off-street parking across the borough again.