County takes over parking

PARKING rules on our roads will be enforced directly by Lancashire County Council (LCC) for the first time from next week.

The wardens who patrol the county’s streets will come under the authority’s control as of Wednesday, September 1.

County Hall says the move will enable it to be more responsive in tackling problem parking wherever it arises.

Ever since the county council took over parking enforcement from the police - when parking breaches were decriminalised in Lancashire in 2004 - the authority has outsourced the work to private contractors.

Under new arrangements LCC will take the service in-house, where it will form an end-to-end operation with the team responsible for processing parking tickets and fines, which is already run by the authority itself.

The county council is ultimately responsible for the enforcement of all on-street parking regulations in Hyndburn. Off-street car parks are controlled by local district councils, many of which, including Hyndburn, employ private parking firms to monitor their facilities and issue tickets.

The police remain responsible for taking action over parking which is considered an obstruction - such as when vehicles are parked wholly or partly on pavements - unless yellow line restrictions are in force along the corresponding stretch of road, in which case councils are permitted to issue fines in the usual way.

The county council will continue to outsource the role of recovering unpaid parking and bus lane penalty charge notices (PCNs).