Ticket per day issued in Telford illegal parking blitz
A crackdown on parking offences is seeing almost one parking ticket a day being handed out in an area of Telford, police said today.
The Great Dawley Safer Neighbourhood Team said it had handed out 331 warning letters and 80 parking fines over the three months from the beginning of June to the end of August.
The high number of parking offences comes despite there being four car parks with about 300 spaces near Dawley High Street.
In March a police community support officer, Ruth Brunger, was brought in to cover the Great Dawley area and tackle issues such as anti-social behaviour and illegal parking.
Sergeant Darren Stacey, from the Safer Neighbourhood Team for Central Telford, said: "Our surveys over the years and more recently around Dawley High Street have all come back and said the biggest issue for residents is parking.
"Recently we have had a new PCSO who is able to give out tickets.
"In the past officers may have given out warnings but haven't been able to ticket because they're busy dealing with other crimes like shoplifting.
"She has gone down there and initially issued warnings to people who are parked illegally on the pavements or in disabled bays without a blue badge.
"As long as they are not parked dangerously she has taken down the numberplate, and if it has been disregarded and they have done it again, she has issued the fine.
"What's worse is there are four car parks. We did work out how many spaces there were once and it is around 300, right next to the High Street.
"In fact, if the bays on the High Street are taken, it is actually more convenient and less distance to park on the car parks rather than illegally on the kerb at the other end of the street."
Sergeant Stacey said that the presence of PCSO Brunger in the area was beginning to make a difference towards cutting down on illegal parking.
He said: "We have seen the number of tickets being issued reducing month on month so the majority of those would have been given out in June and July.
"Since the PCSO started in March she's been more visible.
"She's been walking down the street, speaking to residents, issuing the letters and local residents are also helping – they're going out to people and saying there's people out here ticketing, you shouldn't be parking there.
"All of that is making a difference to the number of tickets we are giving out."
