By Sally Guyoncourt Councils stand accused of ‘sharp practice’ in a damning report from MPs on parking control. The House of Commons’ transport committee charged councils with inconsistency and a lack of accountability in enforcement, and said failure to give appeal information for penalties left councils open to accusations of sharp practice. The committee’s Parking policy and enforcement report called for major nationwide improvements. Committee chairwoman, Gwyneth Dunwoody, said: ‘Our present parking system is, frankly, a mess. We heard that the administration of parking enforcement by councils was too often inconsistent, with poor communication, confusion and a lack of accountability.’ Councils took on parking enforcement from the police in 1991, and 45% of English local authorities now control parking ,with police retaining powers in the rest. In 2003, council parking attendants issued 7.1m penalty charge notices compared with just 1m from police authorities. But 20% of the local authority-charges were later cancelled. Overall surplus revenue for local authorities from parking activities reached £439m in 2003/04. MPs want to see parking control unified and placed entirely in council hands but with better signage, better pay and training for parking attendants, a clearer penalty appeal system, clear performance standards for applying parking restrictions, and councils forced to develop parking strategies. The council practice of incentive schemes for wardens handing out the most fines was heavily criticised, and the Government has now pledged to ban this. MPs want the Audit Commission to be given greater powers to scrutinise council parking departments. But council leaders have defended their parking policy, claiming their motives are road safety and traffic flow. LGA environment board chairman, Cllr David Sparks, said: ‘Only authorities, with their local knowledge, have the ability to make decisions which are suited to local circumstances.’ mjnews@hgluk.com
