Compensation call after cars towed away
Residents who had cars towed as a result of clampdown on nuisance parking should be entitled to compensation, a councillor has claimed.
Newtown County Councillor Mark Barnes made the comments after three residents had their cars towed from streets in the town.
Earlier this week Powys County Council said it would be looking to tackle the issue of parking in Crescent and Bryn Street, after several years of parking complaints.
Three cars were towed as part of the resulting crackdown, but councillor Barnes said in a letter to the council that he wants the authority to compensate the car owners, as a gesture of goodwill.
He said: "I am formally requesting a goodwill payment to three residents who had their cars towed away due to a heavy handed and ill thought out attempt to address car parking issues in the area."
Earlier this week Councillor Fitzpatrick, cabinet member for highways, said that the council would be working with the police to tackle the problem.
He said: “Leaving a vehicle on a pavement causes real problems for our elderly residents and those who are partially-sighted or generally less mobile. While cars parked too close to junctions causes real problem for other drivers as their views are obstructed.
“Residents living in this part of Newtown have raised their concerns and now I am urging drivers to take more care when they park.
“We will be working with Dyfed Powys Police and will engage with residents and drivers to look at ways to resolve nuisance parking in this part of Newtown.”
Councillor Barnes said: "Until the press release from Councillor Liam Fitzpatrick came to my attention, I thought that the police were acting under their own volition and I had disputed residents' claims that they had been formally requested to carry out this action by Powys County Council.
“Councillor Fitzpatrick’s press release makes it clear that I was wrong and that others within the council were addressing the issue without the same care for the residents that I had been offering.
“The perception in the community, one that I can no longer confidently dispute on PCC’s behalf, is that Powys County Council did ask the Police to remove cars if they were deemed to be causing a construction.”
Councillor Barnes said he believes the residents should not have had to pay the £150 fee to collect their cars and wants them to be compensated.
He added: "The rights and wrongs of this approach are disputable and residents who have been parking in this way for many years should have been given greater notice, and a greater duty of care should have been used to ensure that the message had reached all residents before cars were towed away.
“Whatever your views on all of this are, residents had to pay £150 each to collect their cars plus all the inconvenience.
“I am asking that Powys County Council makes three goodwill payments to these residents."
A Powys County Council spokesman said they could not comment on the matter.
