Information on Loughborough

Parking Enforcement - What We Think

Posted on 29/09/2007
Loughborough Newsdesk

line painting on Bridge Street in Loughborough (and no, they didnt get a ticket for parking on double yellow lines)Parking Enforcement Officers, those people who replaced traffic wardens back in July, seem to be getting a bad press at the moment. Shop keepers and vehicle users alike in Loughborough seem to be complaining about Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) being issued at £60 per time. If you are prompt in paying then this can be reduced to £30, if you are late it goes up to £95. However is this the true story on what people think?

Before the new scheme was implemented Leicestershire County Council, whose job is to administer Parking Enforcement in Loughborough, carried out a survey. They asked the citizens panel, about 1,500 people from the Leicestershire area representing the demographics of our county, various questions about parking. inLoughborough has just received the figures from this survey and it makes interesting reading.

Firstly, over three quarters of people believed that inconsiderate parking was a real problem and the majority felt that the situation was getting worse. Certainly the inLoughborough team has witnessed an ambulance in Loughborough on an emergency that was delayed because of the thoughtless parking of road users. Someone could have potentially died because of the actions of the vehicle owners. Next, 95% of people thought that parking restrictions were necessary for reasons of access and safety and the majority again thought that restrictions would improve the quality of the air that we breathe.

Interestingly, 90% of people believe that the Council should fully enforce the legal parking restrictions.

If your neighbour was to break a law such as drinking and driving you would expect them to be prosecuted, and rightly so. The same should be applied to people who break the law by parking in the wrong place. Its wrong. It doesnt matter if it was just for ten minutes, imagine if the 26,208,000 cars in the UK were just parked for 10 minutes where they shouldnt be. Nobody has the right to choose if the law can be ignored by them.

So the next time someone grumbles about a PCN that has been given them in Loughborough, have a think for a few minutes, they got it because they broke the law.