Crackdown on parking helps change habits

ALMOST £200,000 of penalty notices have been handed out to people parking cars in Angus in just three months.

The enforcement of decriminalised parking returned to the streets of the county on May 8.

Community wardens were given powers to issue £60 fines to people parking inconsiderately and the reintroduction of enforcement has resulted i n “a rapid change i n driver behaviour”.

Montrose SNP councillor Bill Duff said: “The parking situation in the town centre at Montrose is much better, with plenty of spaces now available and an eradication of antisocial parking.

“The work of council wardens has been praised by the public and it’s nice to get t hanks rather t han brickbats.

“There are calls from the public t o l engthen t he period allowed from 30 minutes and I’m supportive of this being examined by officers.”

Angus Council hoped the introduction of the decriminalised arrangement would help end the “free-for-all” in local burghs with l ongstanding criticism of drivers regularly parking for lengthy periods in time-limited on-street spaces and ignoring single or double yellow lines.

New figures show that 2,889 tickets were issued for on-street and 295 for offstreet infringements in the first three months.

Head of technical and proper ty ser vices Ian Cochrane said the introduction of decriminalised parking enforcement had been a success.

He added that enforcement action would continue around problem town centres and will expand into other areas, including work with Police Scotland to look at specific problem areas such as schools.