‘We don’t want our town littered with parking meters’ says Councillor

A Councillor has warned Thame Town Council that it needs to take care before supporting whole-heartedly a new parking enforcement scheme being proposed for the town.

This example of where NOT to park in Thame was captured by Frank Millar

“We have to be clear from the start,” said Cllr David Dodds, “what it is we want for the town. We need to maintain the three hours free parking in the Upper High Street so that we would not be littered with parking meters.” Cllr Dodds was speaking to fellow town councillors at last week’s full council meeting, when they discussed whether to support South Oxfordshire District C’ouncil’s proposals.

Henley, Didcot and Wallingford have already agreed to support SODC’s intention to apply to the Department for Transport (DfT) to carry out Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) in its four towns. CPE permits local authorities to apply for the legal powers to take over the enforcement of on-street, as well as off-street, car parking regulations from the police. In return they are allowed to keep the proceeds and parking offences cease to be criminal offences. Local authorities adopting CPE usually employ contractors to run their scheme.

Parking tickets issued under CPE that are challenged, are dealt with by an adjudicator or tribunal rather than through the magistrates’ court and apparently takes into account more mitigating circumstances. Historically, the number of challenges for civil parking offences is significantly higher than with criminal enforcement (60%).

The start up capital cost is estimated to be between £120,000 – £170,000 for South Oxfordshire and the use of either Section 106 (contributions from developers to community projects) or CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) money from growth in development, is being considered as an option for funding the application. It is expected that the CPE scheme would take about 18 months to implement and the future cost of road marking and signs would remain with the County Council and would be funded from its parking account.

Other town councillors were concerned about the knock on effect of CPE on residents’ parking in Thame. Cllr Helena Fickling pointed out that: “The two hour parking in High Street is not being reinforced. The ex Traffic Warden, Peggy, never enforced the two hour parking limit on residents. We will need to negotiate to cover those interests.”

Cllr Nigel Champken Woods said: “Several times we have asked for Residents’ parking but were told ‘No’. There is Residents’ parking in Oxford City, so why not here?” Cllr Don Butler was concerned what effect CPE would have on shoppers.

The town council resolved that support would be given to the introduction of CPE by the district council only if it was assured that:

a) Free parking is retained in the two High Street car parks.

b) The markets in the town can continue and are managed by the Town Council.

c) There are no financial repercussions as a consequence of the introduction of CPE on the events held in the town centre.

e) Agreement is reached with Thame Town Council on any other important issues particular to Thame.