Shropshire Star

Fear that new Telford civilian parking officers ‘will be too stretched’

New civilian parking officers will have a fraction of the manpower they need to cover Telford and Wrekin, an opposition councillor claims.

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The borough has applied to the Department of Transport to take over enforcement of on-street parking from the police, with the new powers expected to be granted in 2020.

Conservative councillor Tim Nelson said the police currently have more than 50 officers working at a time, and said the five dedicated parking officers the council plans to recruit will be stretched too far.

But Councillor Richard Overton, from the ruling Labour group, said the police do not have the time or resources to enforce the rules now but the new officers will.

He added that towns and parishes that believe they need additional wardens will still be able to take them on.

Councillor Nelson, who represents Newport North and West, pointed out the new officers will work 14 hours, 8am to 10pm, and presumed coverage would be 365 days a year.

“That means there are 5,100 hours a year to be covered,” he said.

“You’ve got about 1,790 hours of an individual, so you need 2.8 individuals to cover your 5,100 hours.

Duties

“You’ve got five. That means you’ll get about one-and-a-half people available at any one time.

“The context is the police currently discharge these duties from 14 safer neighbourhood teams, with 18 police constables and 38 PCSOs, which is 56 individuals.”

Councillor Richard Overton, the cabinet member responsible for transport, said a simple headcount was not a fair comparison.

“The police are not doing it, and that is why we are taking over those powers,” he said.

“The reason the police aren’t doing it is because your government continues to cut the police service. They have higher priorities to deal with than parking so we have stepped in.”

He added that the civilian officers would have other roles besides issuing tickets. They will also educate the public about responsible parking and deal with environmental problems like fly-tipping.

Independent councillor Peter Scott, who represents Newport North and West, and is also the mayor on Newport Town Council, said: “I do have my own concerns about the number of wardens being five for the whole borough, based on the fact that Newport itself has quite a big parking problem on its own.

“Is there any possibility the civil parking enforcement powers might be devolved down to parishes, so we could pay for our own wardens?”

Councillor Overton said: “There are still partnership agreements where parish and town councils have taken on certain wardens and they should be continuing.”

By Alex Moore, local democracy reporter