We are not ‘snooping’ on drivers

Coun Roy Miller, cabinet spokesperson for Development, Environment and Culture: I have to take issue with the way you reported the Barnsley Council’s use of the new car to deter and take action on illegal parking.

I get repeated complaints about the standard of parking around schools, motorists obstructing junctions, blocking busy roads at peak hours, parking in bus stops so that any buses have to stop in the middle of the road to pick up and drop off passengers and so on. From discussions, I know many fellow members across the borough hear the same complaints on their travels, from residents, from school children, teachers, bus drivers, other motorists and more. It is evident action is needed.

The sort of parking often seen around schools on arrival and at home time is dangerous: Obstructing the view at junctions, parking on double yellows, blocking bus stops. If we did nothing and someone was injured, we’d be criticised. However, we are doing something, and still we’re criticised. Despite high profile campaigns, people continue to park where they shouldn’t.

We send our parking wardens out to ‘hotspots’, but people see them coming, so they get in their cars and they disappear. However, once the wardens are out of the way, the dangerous, inconsiderate parking is back.

However, those people who regularly offend now have a greater chance of being caught. Our car, equipped with a camera and automatic number plate recognition, will operate where stopping restrictions are in place. Outside school hours it will patrol restricted parking areas such as bus stops and taxi ranks. It will also help to maintain the free flow of traffic at peak times by patrolling arterial roads where clearway and prohibition of loading restrictions are in place.

Similar schemes elsewhere in the country have seen a dramatic change in parking behaviour. It is my hope that people will, having heard about the car, be considering their actions and looking to change their behaviour. If they don’t, they’ll get caught and they’ll be punished. There is nothing covert about the way we’re doing this, so your use of terms such as ‘spy’ and ‘snoop’ are inappropriate.