Civil Parking Enforcement moves a step nearer in Ceredigion

Civil Parking Enforcement moved a step nearer in Ceredigion today after the Council’s Highways Scrutiny Committee voted unanimously to recommend the measure to the Council’s Cabinet after viewing detailed costings. I was particularly pleased to be able to propose the motion since I’ve been banging on about this issue ever since I became a councillor.

The Cabinet is expected to discuss the issue in March. An agreement then would be likely to see Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) coming into force around June 2012. That, in turn could see a Residents’ Parking Scheme, the holy grail for many residents in Aberystwyth, being introduced a year later, in 2013.

The issue was brought to a head at the beginning of this month when the police announced their intention to abandon their traffic warden service from the end of May in frustration at the Council’s lack of action (see post below).

Todays’ committee meeting heard that ten out of 22 Welsh authorities have already adopted CPE, with Pembrokeshire going live 17 days ago and Powys due to start on April 1st. Of those remaining, six Councils are now working towards it with only those in Gwent still holding back.

Under CPE, the money re-couped from parking fees has to be ring-fenced to be spent on traffic management within the Council's area instead of going into the UK Treasury as street parking fines do now.