The Government intends to abolish the use of CCTV cameras for parking enforcement, according to a consultation document.
That will put schoolchildren at risk, so the Local Government Association (LGA) and National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) are warning.
Councils use CCTV enforcement vehicles to tackle dangerous and illegal parking outside schools including cars blocking driveways, driving along pavements and stopping on yellow zig-zag lines outside school gates. They may be introduced at the request of parents or teachers concerned about the safety of schoolchildren and act as a visible deterrent to the minority of drivers who put children’s safety at risk.
The Department for Transport launched a consultation to change the law to ban the use of CCTV for on-street parking enforcement and to only allow traffic wardens to film vehicles breaking the rules. The current central Government rule for councils is to use CCTV only where enforcement by parking wardens is impractical.
Councillor Peter Box, Chair of the LGA’s Economy and Transport Board, said: “Camera cars have been instrumental in keeping children from being hurt or killed on the way to school, and CCTV also plays an important role elsewhere in monitoring traffic flow and keeping cars moving.
“It is impossible for councils to regulate parking outside thousands of schools by using wardens alone. Camera cars are deployed in response to pleas by parents and teachers about cars being parked illegally and recklessly outside the school gates. CCTV cars are a highly visible deterrent for those breaking the law and councils will often send warnings to drivers of the consequences of their actions before issuing them with parking fines. Banning councils from acting on these community concerns and using CCTV outside schools will put children at risk and leave them and their parents to run the gauntlet of the school run without any protection.”
Sion Humphreys, Policy Adviser at NAHT, said: “Parking outside schools can be big problem. Many drivers take risks to avoid the rush such as ignoring the hatched areas outside or speeding as they attempt to bypass the school queue. CCTV not only helps tackle the potential safety risks of dangerous parking and speeding but can also be an additional tool against anti-social behaviour.”
Case studies from the LGA
Oldham Council has used a CCTV car to patrol schools since 2012 and sending warning letters to drivers caught parking illegally. It is an attempt to cut accident rates after 53 children were injured on roads across the town in 2011. The car was introduced at the request of local residents and parents who were fed up with inconsiderate drivers on the school run.
Bedford Borough Council approved the purchase of a static camera which can be used to monitor vehicles using bus lanes as well as a mobile CCTV camera which will be mounted on an existing council vehicle. This follows the success of the council’s first CCTV vehicle which was effective in tackling school-time parking and double yellow line abuse. Improving road safety around schools is so fundamental to the council that it is currently subsidising the scheme by £15,000 a year.
Hartlepool Council has been using CCTV enforcement since May 2011, following regular complaints from schools and bus companies. The previous use of traffic wardens meant each of the town’s 40 schools only received around one week’s enforcement a year.
Barking and Dagenham Council recently held the borough’s first parking summit of teachers, lollipop men and women, councillors and local police. It was in response to inconsiderate, dangerous and illegal parking outside schools.
Wolverhampton City Council used a YouTube video to announce the use of a new CCTV enforcement car in the city after a request from school head teachers. The city only has 13 traffic wardens on duty at any one time and has more than 100 schools with parking problems.
The LGA adds that the plans to ban CCTV enforcement go against the findings of the Transport Select Committee in October which concluded: “We recognise that cameras can be helpful for enforcement in some areas where the use of a Civil Enforcement Officer is not practical.”
The Government on December 6, 2013, published a consultation paper on local authority parking. The consultation will run until February 14, 2014.
In the document, the Government is inviting views on whether to stop use of CCTV for on-street parking enforcement. Some in local government CCTV argue that they could lose the good-will of the public towards public space CCTV for crime prevention and community safety, if it is seen as a money-making tool taking money from car parkers. Or in the words of the consultation: “The Government is concerned that, by using CCTV cameras in areas where enforcement could be undertaken by a parking warden, local authorities undermine public acceptance of their limited use for non-criminal offences.”
Also the Government is asking whether – of interest for CIT deliveries – a driver should have a ‘grace period’ to stay in a parking place for a short period before the council warden issues a parking ticket. And should central Government tell councils to take ‘a less heavy-handed approach to parking enforcement’?
About the Transport Committee
Visit the parliament.uk website for the report on local authority parking enforcement.
The Transport Committee called for greater oversight of the way in which local authorities use cameras to issue Penalty Charge Notices. As long as the use of cameras remains legal, local authorities must ensure that they are not used as a matter of routine, said MPs, particularly where permits or exemptions (such as resident permits or Blue Badges) not visible to the camera equipment may apply.
This topic is also of interest to security firms doing work such as cash in transit who often have to park on streets, and risk fines on double yellows. As Louise Ellman, chair of Transport Committee said in October: “It is also unacceptable that enforcement regimes effectively force some companies to incur Penalty Charge Notices costing hundreds of thousands of pounds a year for carrying out their business.” Local authorities must ensure that the need to restrict parking and manage congestion does not stifle the ability of businesses to trade, said the Transport Committee. The MPs added that it is hard to justify parking fines that are substantially more than the fines for more serious offences like speeding. In reply, the Government said that finding the right balance between the needs of different road users and the demand for kerb space is essentially a local decision, and admitted it’s a long-standing problem.
The consultation on CCTV against illegal parking:
Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs, although commonly known as parking wardens) do not have the powers that the police have to stop vehicles if they contravene traffic regulations. Without powers to stop vehicles, the most effective way to enforce moving traffic contraventions, such as cars using bus lanes, causing congestion by not exiting a box junction, or undertaking dangerous manoeuvres through banned turns is by using camera enforcement. This frees up police time to deal with crime, but the Government is concerned that, specifically in relation to on-street parking, the use of CCTV cameras is no longer proportionate, and local councils over-employ them to deal with contraventions where it would be more appropriate, fairer and straightforward for a parking warden to deal with the contravention. The Government therefore intends to put an end to this practice by stopping the use of CCTV cameras to enforce on-street parking contraventions.
DfT’s statutory guidance already states that CCTV cameras should only be used where parking enforcement is difficult or sensitive and enforcement by a parking warden is not practical. The Home Office Code of Practice on CCTV surveillance published earlier this year confirmed this approach and added that CCTV should only be used where there is a “pressing need.” Many local authorities do not use CCTV to enforce parking, but there is increasing concern that of those that do, a number do not have sufficient regard to statutory guidance and are over-using CCTV.
Competing
As the consultation points out, there is competing demand for kerb space from road users, businesses and residents.
As for the size of this issue, the consultation document says that in England in 2011-12, over eight million parking fines were issued. It’s a nice earner for councils; again to quote from the consultation paper, from 1997-98 to 2010-11, local authority total income in England from parking rose from £608m to £1.3 billion. As MPs pointed out, the maximum penalty charge in London is £130 while outside London the same figure is £70. By comparison, the maximum Fixed Penalty for speeding (outside a court case) is £60.
When police had parking-fine powers taken from them and given to councils, most councils took it up – civil parking enforcement (CPE) powers to use the jargon. As the consultation admits, there are ‘concerns about over-zealous parking enforcement’.
