Review call on parking

Parking restrictions across Shropshire may be reviewed after hundreds of complaints from motorists in the county, it was revealed today.Drivers have hit out at restrictions enforced by the county's parking agency ParkRight. Council leader Peter Nutting said he was receiving a lot of complaints about how parking rules were enforced - in Shrewsbury and elsewhere.

South Shropshire District Council has already made changes to the fines regime, and now bosses at Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council have called for the issue to be discussed at a meeting on Monday.

The ParkRight scheme is run by Shropshire County Council, but administered by Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council.

"I just want us to start looking at how we do things and whether we are being sensible or whether we should be using more discretion at times in the way tickets are issued and the way appeals are handled by back office staff," said Councillor Nutting.

In south Shropshire, councillors have approved a new fines regime. Time-related fines will fall from £60 to £50 in April but the cost of a dangerous parking offence will rise from £60 to £70. Those fines will be halved if people pay within 28 days.

Today south Shropshire's finance boss Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith said the authority had been holding regular talks with ParkRight about enforcement.

He said: "We are on top of this issue. We are altering our pricing structures to encourage more people to use public car parks. We are also discussing enforcement regularly with ParkRight to make sure wardens adopt the right approach."

Meanwhile, Mr Nutting said no-one wanted to see people breaking parking regulations. He said: "There needs to be more common sense within the enforcement of how parking is done in residential areas.

"There are people getting booked late in the evening outside their own houses and to me that doesn't seem sensible.

"We may ask the county council to review restrictions."