Traffic Management Act will lead to chaos and confusion

... and now this prediction in the letter below from a councillor and portfolio holder.

Dick Turpin is ready to ride again and there will be many aggrieved motorists the length and breadth of the land. Perhaps the councillor would like to correct the word 'offences' and replace it with 'contravention.'

New parking fines hit by confusion

Sir.-
I wouldn't want either the borough's motorists or our award-winning parking attendants to get the idea that our enforcement regime will be either "lax or non-existent" when the new ranges of parking fines come in on March 31 (Gazette, January 31).

I expect enforcement to continue across all existing offences and I especially welcome the increased fine for illegally parking in a disabled space.
There is scope for confusion in some new offences created by the legislation, because of the way the Government has rushed this through.

For example, the act makes it an offence to park across a "dropped kerb", meaning the entrance to someone's drive. My problem is that a car parked across a dropped kerb may be the householder's own car or one parked by a visitor with the owner's agreement.
I would be livid if I got a ticket on my own car parked across my own drive, and I expect most residents would feel the same.

I can imagine ways we might avoid this and still ticket a car parked without the owner's consent, but any approach must be easy for everyone to understand.

The Government itself is still unclear about how it expects this to be enforced.
We are developing a new enforcement policy in response to the legislation.

Meanwhile, it is very much still business as usual from March 31, but with the new, higher charge of £70 for more serious offences and £50 for less serious ones.

But there will be no attempt to enforce the "dropped kerb" offence unless, and until, we are confident we can do this in a sound and sensitive way.

-Horace Mitchell, Cabinet member for planning and transport, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.