Parking wardens to target litter bugs

New role: parking attendants will be renamed 'civil enforcement' officers and allowed to issue penalty notices for fly-posting and graffiti

Parking attendants could soon be able to hand out on-the-spot fines if they catch anyone dropping litter.

The attendants will be renamed "civil enforcement officers" and allowed to issue penalty notices for fly-posting and graffiti.

They would also become council "spies", reporting on unruly behaviour and providing evidence which could lead to prosecutions and Asbos.

Westminster City Council is now considering using the full powers provided by a government shake-up of the parking system.

Under the proposals, parking attendants would be able to:

Hand out tickets for littering, fly-posting and graffiti.

Issue fixed-penalty notices for driving in bus-lanes or jumping red lights.

Report anti-social behaviour and be involved in collecting evidence for Asbos.

Be summoned in front of a parking regulator in court to give evidence.

At the moment, attendants are only allowed to issue parking fines, report abandoned vehicles and inaccurate signs or markings, and check car parks are clean and tidy.

The new rules will be announced by the Department of Transport next month and are expected to come into force on 1 March next year under the Traffic Management Act 2004.

They are designed to free up more police time by switching powers to local councils.

A motorist who refuses to pay a £60 fine for jumping lights will be taken to court where a civil enforcement officer (CEO) could give evidence. Anyone failing to pay an on-the-spot littering fine faces a maximum penalty of £2,500.

Westminster Council parking manager Kieran Fitsall said of the new civil enforcement officers: "Primarily they are to be the eyes and the ears of the council and concentrate on road offences which have been decriminalised.

"However, the Act is not specific and it could be used to pass on information leading to an Asbo or used so CEOs could hand out fixed-penalty notices for dropping litter or cigarette butts."

The RAC Foundation's head of campaigns Sheila Rainger said that if CEOs started unfairly targeting people, many would "lose faith" in the justice system.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT