Date published: 21/04/2004

Big changes are on the way for on street parking in Rochdale borough. With the aims of improving road safety and traffic flow, Rochdale Council will introduce a new system of parking management and enforcement on 4 July this year. The Council hopes to considerably reduce the number of vehicles that are illegally or incorrectly parked.

The changes will benefit drivers and pedestrians in many ways:

• Improved road and pavement safety
• Emergency and large public service vehicles such as waste collection vehicles will be less likely to find their route blocked
• Disabled bays only being used by those who are entitled to do so
• Improved journey times through the towns
• A better environment due to less damage to pavements and verges

Kevin Mayor, Parking & Business Development Manager at Rochdale Council is responsible for co-ordinating the introduction of the new system. He commented, "Residents and businesses have been asking us to do something about improving enforcement as bad parking causes a lot of problems for many people.

"It's the driver's responsibility to park correctly and safely, yet many people regularly ignore the parking restrictions - often it's simply because they think they can get away with it, but they ignore the fact that their vehicles block streets and are a hazard to others.

"Under the new system it's very simple. If you park in the wrong place, don't pay for the time you stay or flout the rules in some other way you will be much more likely to find yourself paying a penalty charge after July 4."

Current system
Under the present system council parking attendants enforce parking restrictions in the council-controlled parking areas and issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) Parking offences committed in these locations are classed as civil offences.

Greater Manchester Police, or their traffic wardens, issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) to drivers who commit parking offences on the streets - parking on double yellow lines, for example, or in a disabled bay without displaying the badge. These are criminal offences.

New system
From 4 July Greater Manchester Police and their traffic wardens will no longer issue Fixed Penalty Notices for parking offences in the borough. All enforcement will be done by the parking attendants and parking offences will be classed as civil, not criminal. A penalty is still payable, however (£60.00 which reduces to £30.00 if paid within 14 days) and, as a last resort, steps can be taken via the County Court to recover money due if the charge is not paid.

Disabled Badges, Vehicles causing obstruction
Misuse of a Blue Badge (disabled badge) will remain a criminal offence and the police will still issue FPNs to vehicles causing obstruction - or even arrange for them to be removed (as they can at present).

Greater Manchester Police totally supports the change to this new system as it will allow the force to concentrate on other duties. Some 80 other authorities around the country have also implemented the scheme and are very pleased with the improvements it brings.

Parking attendants
At present nine parking attendants (PAs) are employed by the council; they currently patrol the 'off-street' car parks.

The council has appointed a specialist parking management company, NCP, to employ the parking attendants and manage them on a daily basis on its behalf. NCP will determine exactly how many PAs will be required to fulfill their contractual obligations but it is anticipated that there will be approximately 18 PAs patrolling both on- and off-street.

All parking attendants, both current and new, will be fully trained in all aspects of the new parking legislation. They will also have to pass NCP's competence examination before they are allowed to commence their duties. In addition the parking attendants will be encouraged to work towards passing both the NVQ Level 2 in Parking Control and the NVQ Level 2 in Customer Care.

Neither the parking attendants nor NCP will have any form of financial or other incentive to issue penalty charge notices.

What happens to the money?
It will stay in and benefit the borough, which is not always the case at present. The Government requires the system to be self-financing so money raised from the system as a whole will pay for the parking attendants, general administration of the system and the cost of processing PCNs.

Any surplus raised from 'on-street' payments (for example from tariffs at pay and display machines or from payment of PCNs) is ring-fenced by law and has to be transferred to the local highways authority. The highways authority, in turn, may only use that money to finance transport-related improvements. (At the moment fines from FPNs issued by the police or traffic wardens are paid to the Treasury in London).

In contrast, any money raised from 'off-street' parking (from both charges and from payments into pay and display machines) is not ring-fenced. The council may continue to use this money for any purpose it deems appropriate as it does at present.

Appeals
Any driver who believes the PCN was wrongly issued has the right to appeal to the council and, if necessary, to the independent National Parking Adjudication Service whose decision is final and binding.

The processing of the PCNs and collection of the charges will be handled by the council in an extension to its existing service for off-street management.