RESIDENTS could soon be hitting the streets ?of Weston in traffic-warden style roles in a bid to catch out motorists who are deliberately flouting the law.

Volunteers would photograph drivers causing problems in the town centre, record their registrations and issue warning letters.

The brainchild of North Somerset councillors Mike Bell and Clare Kingsbury-Bell, the idea has earned support from town centre residents and the pair are set to meet with police to discuss the plans.

Parking in the town centre has long been a concern for residents and businesses, with motorists remaining in one-hour spots all day, in loading bays and on double yellow lines without permission.

Councillor Kingsbury-Bell said: “Community Parking Watch is a completely new idea and as far as we are aware has never been tried anywhere in the country.

“Parking is a community problem and we think the community can help the police to improve the situation.

“We’ll be talking with the police, business people and residents to see if we could make a scheme reality.

“Parking is out of control and we need a long-term solution, but Community Parking Watch might have a role to play in offering some short-term relief.”

The idea has been met with support among residents and by the Town Centre Partnership.

Although members of the Community ?Parking Watch group would be trained, their actions would not lead to prosecution of the drivers.

As part of the bid to tackle problem motorists, police have come up with their own idea of setting up a parking hotline. Residents who see illegal parking could call and leave a message, allowing officers to build a picture of the worst offenders and hotspots.

Town centre sergeant Mark Raby says he would like to see parking decriminalised, so that it becomes the council’s responsibility to ticket offenders.

He says his officers have given out 1,500 tickets in Weston between February and mid-July and, although he knows it needs to be done, he would like to see their time used tackling more serious crimes.

He said: “My main concern is that I can’t send officers out every day to tackle parking, because they have other priorities.

“The hotline would allow us to ask people to be more considerate.

“Education would be better in some cases than enforcement.

“I can’t see the logic in parking being the police’s responsibility.”

The decriminalisation row has been rumbling on for several years, with the current council administration refusing to adopt the policy.

The idea was initially approved by the Liberal Democrat administration in 2006/07. But, following the elections when the Conservatives took control of North Somerset Council, new highways chief Elfan Ap Rees was, and remains, opposed to the idea.

He said this week: “Decriminalisation had to be district-wide and the Department for Transport would not sanction partial cover.

“This meant employing sufficient wardens, vehicles etc to cover all of North Somerset, something like 30 staff, and it was obvious that this would not be self-financing from fines alone, and it would therefore add to our costs.

“One option was to introduce parking meters in Weston and elsewhere, but we felt this would impact on town centre shopkeepers, especially bearing in mind the availability of free parking at out-of-town centres like Cribbs Causeway and Worle.”

Reproduced from the Weston and Somerset Mercury, 27/8/11