ONLY 133 people across the whole county responded to a survey about plans for a ‘traffic warden’ replacement scheme.
The consultation on a new draft parking policy took place over the summer and of the 133 responses, 66 came from Stamford residents.
Spalding has been without a traffic warden for several years and South Holland District Council has agreed to take part in the scheme which would see a clampdown on illegal parking across the district.
The new policy forms part of Lincolnshire County Council’s application for powers to introduce civil parking enforcement (CPE), which will enable the council to take over responsibility for on-street parking enforcement from the police.
Coun William Webb, executive member for highways and transport, said: “Although we didn’t get a huge response to the draft parking policy consultation, comments were made on the general policy proposals for residents’ parking schemes and also on specific local street parking conditions.”
The aims of the parking policy are to:
l Ensure a consistent approach to parking is taken county-wide;
l Ease congestion by improving compliance with parking restrictions;
l Enhance and support local economies.
Coun Webb added: “Parking is an issue that some people do feel strongly about and we’re grateful that residents took the time and trouble to get in touch.
“We’ve taken on board many of these comments and revised the policy ahead of our next highways scrutiny committee meeting. I hope to be in a position to approve the policy at this meeting, following any further discussions, so that we can work with our district council colleagues to progress the issues that people have raised.
“The consultation has given the county and district councils the opportunity to look at how a more consistent approach to parking can be taken county-wide for the first time. We need to do all we can to keep people on the move and make sure residents and businesses don’t suffer through a lack of appropriate parking provision.
“Positive discussions are still ongoing with our district council colleagues, looking at possible ways of funding CPE, which hopefully will conclude soon.”
A final draft of the policy, incorporating feedback from the public and other organisations, will be discussed at the Highways, Transport and Technology Scrutiny Committee meeting on Monday.
The draft parking policy covers ‘on-street parking’, which under CPE will become LCC’s responsibility, and ‘off street parking’, which is the district councils’ responsibility and proposes that this remains unchanged.