Parking enforcement ‘not a priority’ say police

THAME’S top police officers have made it clear that illegal parking in the town is not a priority for them. Reporting to Thame Town Council at its meeting on Tuesday (24/02), Inspector Mark Harling and Sgt Aidan Donohoe told councillors that with a beat of 110 sq miles, and with just four Constables and seven PCSOs, their priorities had to be talking to victims of crime, child protection issues in the area, dealing with shed and garage break-ins, Road Traffic Collisions and visiting vulnerable elderly and other people with mental health issues.

This car was caught parked on zig zag lines, illegally, while its driver went shopping – Photo Frank Millar

“We do however, deal with parking enforcement issues when we can,” said Sgt Donohue, who said that he personally was a strong advocate of the Decriminilisation of parking, with the use of dedicated parking.

“In November we issued 30 Fixed Penalty Notices, and more recently, 12 in two days during January, and I am confident that between 20 and 30 will be given in February. But it can only be ad hoc, when we have the time and the resources,” he added.

DROP IN CRIME

Insp Harling said that, after a £40 million cut as part of austerity measures, there was ‘no hanging fruit’ and that the force was going through a  ‘quality-based’ budgeting exercise. “I have no idea what the force may look like in a year’s time,” he told councillors. Despite the challenges, he said, crime in the Thame Sector had dropped by 18% since April last year, with 851 crimes last year, to this last year’s 696. There had though, he said, been an increase in ‘Calls for Service’ – relating to such things as Missing Persons, and Child Sex Exploitation, this latter which had increased ‘exponentially’.

“So, although we have time from the reduction in crime, that time is filled up with these other areas.” he explained. Two or three people are reported missing everyday, he went on, and although most of them are found, they tend to be either very old or very young, and therefore of high risk, so every resource will be used to a specific location to find them. He went on: “On top of all this, we are picking up the slack of other public organisations. Because they do not necessarily operate 24 hours a day, we are the organisation that will be telephoned, and we have to respond even though it is not our sphere of responsibility.

“I cannot make any promises but just explain our position. In six months time, we may be able to come back to you and explain what Thames Valley Police is looking like.”

ZIG-ZAG LINES & PARKING IN RESIDENTIAL STREETS

In answer to a query from Cllr Vaughan Humphries, Sgt Donohoe explained PCSO’s cannot give tickets to drivers who park on zig-zag lines etc, only Constables. So far, he said, eight had been issued. When Cllr Mary Stiles asked about parking in residential streets around the town, she was told that the police did tend to concentrate on the town centre and that, when they did try to catch people parking illegally in residential streets, the culprits had very often gone, having only parked there for a short time.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Cllr Lambert asked about the force’s recent taking up of using social media, particular twitter, where they had published photographs of offending vehicles. He asked whether they would be actually replying to tweets in the near future or was it just a tool for saying ‘we are here; this is what we are doing’ ? Sgt Donohoe explained that he was indeed tweeting as part of a force-wide initiative of public engagement, but that the training was not to get into a back and forth discussion. He added that he does look at twitter and takes note of the postings. For rural crime particularly, he explained, such tweeting was seen as a deterrent.

Cllr Laver asked if the police were able to use the CCTV cameras to identify persistent parking offenders and was told that, although officers did not have the resources to do that, they do target persistent offenders. “We know who they are,” he added. Cllr Lambert then asked whether, if local people tweeted pictures of offenders, could the police doing anything? He was told that the best thing is for people to email such pictures to the Neighbourhood team via ThameWatlingtonChinnorNHPT@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

NO CHANGE ANY TIME SOON

The Town Clerk reported that Civil Parking Enforcement (that was supposed to replace the use of traffic wardens and become the responsibility of local authorities) had been put on hold, mainly because of the expense.

NB Civil Parking Enforcement was supposed to be discussed at SODC Cabinet meeting in January, which was cancelled. It does not appear to be on the agenda of February’s Cabinet meeting, and the link to the ‘cabinet report’ does not work. (Could be due to disruptions to the website after the fire at SODC HQ in January)