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AGENDA ITEM NO: 8
ENVIRONMENTAL & REGENERATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
THURSDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2006
INFORMATION REPORT FROM CHIEF TRANSPORTATION & ASSET MANAGEMENT OFFICER
CIVIL PARKING ENFORCEMENT
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
To report to Members the progress to date on the delivery of CPE (Civil Parking Enforcement) for Wrexham (formerly known as Decriminalised Parking Enforcement). Provide an update on the collaborative working options under discussion with the five other North Wales Authorities, and provide feedback on the interim enforcement arrangement implemented in partnership with the Police to control indiscriminate parking in the Town Centre and across the County Borough
INFORMATION
1 Civil Parking Enforcement - Wrexham’s Progress to Date
In accordance with previous Executive Board resolutions, Officers have begun work on the “generic” aspects, common to all delivery options, of Wrexham’s application for Civil Parking Enforcement powers.
The draft implementation timetable for Wrexham is included in Appendix A.
Parking Strategy and Policies
Fundamental to the application to the Welsh Assembly Government for Civil Enforcement powers is a thorough review of parking policies. These policies should be consistent with and contribute to the overall transport policies having regard to:
§ The need to maintain and, where possible, improve the flow of traffic
§ The need to improve safety and environmental conditions
§ Improving the quality and accessibility of public transport, including discouraging car use where road conditions and public transport facilities justify it
§ The needs of local residents, shops and businesses
§ The particular needs of people with disabilities
§ The need for coach parking, where appropriate, and for parking facilities for motorcyclists
§ The needs of pedal cyclists, especially where parking controls are being used to discourage car use and where an increase in cycling may result or is being actively encouraged
Officers are currently preparing a revised Parking Strategy for Wrexham
Traffic Order Review
Highway Authorities are required as part of the application for civil enforcement powers to confirm that by the proposed commencement date of powers, all traffic regulation orders will have been modified to be consistent with parking decriminalisation; that all relevant signing, plating and road markings, will be present, in a good state of repair and clear in their meaning.
This particular aspect of the preparatory work is likely to be the single most time consuming and costly part of the application work. All existing traffic regulation orders within the County Borough’s proposed enforcement area require cataloguing, reviewing, and converting to facilitate “civil enforcement” under the powers of the Road Traffic Act 1991. In addition, detailed on site surveys are required to ensure all signing and road markings laid in connection with these orders conform to the required regulations. An extensive programme of remedial work is envisaged to ensure all this work is in order.
It is presently envisaged, with the existing stock of traffic regulation orders, that this aspect of work will take in the region of fourteen months to complete. To ensure the target date for implementation of CPE does not significantly shift during this period, it will be necessary to limit the creation of new traffic orders within the County Borough to the most essential traffic (i.e. those required due to emergency highway safety issues or critical development related works).
It is proposed that upon the introduction of powers the new Parking Strategy will provide for the consideration of new traffic orders including the implementation of residents parking areas, on street charging, etc. The Parking Strategy would include a rolling programme of traffic order review avoiding ad-hoc implementation and to ensure consistency and compliance with the overriding transportation aims.
Work has begun on the essential traffic regulation order review with strategy options for undertaking the review being considered. New computer software allowing the management and cataloguing of all traffic order records is currently being purchased.
2 Civil Parking Enforcement – Collaborative Working on the Administration of Penalty Charge Notices
As agreed at the Executive Board meeting of 6 June, extensive discussions have taken place at a Regional Officer Project Group of the six North Wales Authorities on the viability of establishing a central notice processing unit for North Wales.
Presently all six authorities are all at different stages with their individual work on seeking enforcement powers, namely:
§ Conwy - All preparatory work complete, implementation date, 1 September 2006
§ Denbighshire - Civil Enforcement Powers since 2004
§ Flintshire - Feasibility study undertaken, no firm commitment to proceed to date
§ Gwynedd - Extensive preparatory work undertaken, proposed start date, April 2007
§ Ynys Mon - Extensive preparatory work undertaken, partial partnership in place with Gwynedd, proposed start date, April 2007
Given the above situation there has been some difficulty in establishing definite commitment and consensus from certain parties to date, particularly those already with extensive systems in place and those working towards an imminent implementation.
The feasibility work considered the establishment of a flexible central unit, being capable of providing a varying level of entry dependent on each authority’s individual requirements. This ranged from an entry level providing little more than a printing and posting facility up to virtual complete provision of the service.
Feedback from the feasibility work and officer group is proposed to be reported back to the Regional Partnership Board in early October.
It should be noted that this collaboration project may impact upon Wrexham’s proposed implementation target. However, it is important that the collaboration work is managed carefully to ensure that any effect is minimised.
3 Civil Parking Enforcement - Interim Enforcement Agreement – Performance to date
As agreed at the Executive Board meeting of 21 March, the first performance figures are now available on the temporary partnership arrangement introduced with the Police providing enforcement of traffic parking restrictions by the Police Community Support Officers (PCSO).
In the four months since the introduction of the arrangement, the following table indicates the number of tickets issued;
Month / April / May / June / JulyNo. of Tickets Issued / 471 / 267 / 297 / 185
From discussions with the Police it is apparent that the reason for the large volume of tickets issued during the first month of operation was due to the number of officers undertaking enforcement duties, over and above the one officer that was required as part of the agreement. To ensure a big impact from the introduction of the service, enforcement duties were shared between the 5 PCSO operating in the town, often resulting in more enforcement time than the agreement required. It should also be noted that compliance on traffic restrictions throughout the town had deteriorated significantly up to the start of April with large number of offenders in concentrated locations.
To respond to growing concerns in the wider County Borough area, the enforcement team were requested to extend their enforcement regime to include the rural towns and villages, this work began in July. A breakdown of locations where tickets have been issued is included in Appendix B
RECOMMENDATION
Information report only
BACKGROUND PAPERS
PAPERS / LOCATIONN/A / N/A
WEBSITE INFORMATION N/A
CTAMO/54/06
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Appendix A
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Appendix B
Town Centre Enforcement Locations
June & July figures only
Rural Enforcement Locations
July figures only