Return of traffic wardens is welcomed by readers

Traffic wardens will be back patrolling Airdrie and Coatbridge town centres later this month – and Advertiser readers have had their say on their return.

North Lanarkshire Council’s decriminalised parking enforcement (DPE) scheme is to begin on September 19, when £60 penalty charge notices will be issued to motorists parking on yellow lines.

Sharon A Neil welcomed the decision: “Fantastic news, about time. The amount of work vans in disabled bays is a joke.”

Jnfr Renicks agreed: “About time. People can be so inconsiderate and lazy when it comes to parking.”

Leslie Ames said:“This will hopefully help people do their shopping in the town centres.”

Elaine McMath Patrick opined: “I really hope they do start booking idiotic drivers, because there is a big car park right next to their lazy bums!”

Alastair Wright added: “About time; Hallcraig Street and Stirling Street are a disgrace.

“People parking in Hallcraig Street display pure laziness as there are hundreds of parking spots in the multi-storey and beside the Twin Cabs office.”

Denise Parks posted: “Hope it makes a difference to Heritage Way. Folk coming to Summerlee Museum forget people live there; the street corners are a nightmare as people can’t see for all the illegally parked cars.”

Thomas Brian claimed: “Calder Street in Coatbridge is in for a big wake-up call!”

Also provoking debate within our social media community was our story on University Hospital Monklands staff taking more than 90,000 sick days in the last three years.

The Advertiser gleaned statistics from NHS Lanarkshire through a Freedom of Information request, which showed an 11 per cent rise in sickness at the hospital from 2016/17 to 2017/18.

Sharron Harris responded: “I know nurses who go into Monklands Hospital on their days off – and even on annual leave they go in.”

Rhona McKee opined: “The staff in Monklands Hospital are the very best, especially the staff of ward 17.

“I have never seen such a dedicated lot of staff; they don’t take time off work, despite being so short-staffed.”

Heather Lang added: “I bet there are so many sick days because the staff are really overworked; it’s a shame.”