North Wales councils combine to combat poor parking

The question has to be asked as to whether this complies with the legislation and where the vicarious liability lies?

Welsh Local Government Association
08 July 2008

Savings are being made across North Wales and the local regulation of parking significantly improved for local residents and businesses as a result of an innovative partnership across four local authorities.

A team of just five people who make up a shared service centre for the ‘Wales Penalty Processing Partnership’ is responsible for processing all the penalty notices across Denbighshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey and Wrexham and are achieving collection rates for parking fines that are 15% over and above the UK average.

Councillor Eryl Williams (Denbighshire County Council), Spokesperson for the Wales Penalty Processing Partnership said: “The shared service centre is saving money and time. Denbighshire was the first council in North Wales to take on civil enforcement powers for parking.

We have built on our experience to establish an innovative shared service centre which has saved the other partners 33% of the operating costs it would have cost to run the service on their own.

Furthermore over £100,000 has been saved in set up costs.”

“Local authorities issue penalty notices for parking so that they can work with local people to ensure that vehicles are parked where it best suits local residents and businesses. We all need the local regulation of parking but we must ensure that is provided at the lowest possible cost.” “We expect further benefits as more councils join the partnership and we take on processing environmental penalties like dog fouling, fly tipping, graffiti and littering for partners who wish to undertake environmental enforcement.”

“The partnership is a powerful enabler to take on civil enforcement of parking. For example, it can help tackle some difficult parking issues in town centres for the benefit of residents and can ease town centre traffic flows.

Furthermore it can help to improve health and safety in shopping areas and town centres as well as protecting the interests of disabled drivers by regulating the behaviour of other motorists.”

Steve Thomas, Chief Executive, Welsh Local Government Association added: “The WLGA was instrumental in the set up of this partnership through the Regional Partnership Board for North Wales.
It is an excellent demonstration of the potential benefits of councils working together to deliver both efficiencies and service benefits. I look forward to more pace setting initiatives like this from North Wales.”

ENDS