'Softly-softly' approach to parking fines

Parking wardens will issue about 100,000 fewer tickets in central London this year under a new "softly-softly" approach.

It follows an outcry after over-zealous attendants blitzed delivery drivers in Soho, leading to a milkman getting 40 penalty fines on his rounds in six months.

Westminster council, which ordered the new approach after the Evening Standard highlighted the ticketing blitz, estimates it will lose ?6.1 million in revenue as a result of issuing fewer ?100 tickets. But its parking service will still take about ?90million this year once income from car parks, meters and residents' permits is included.

After the cost of running Europe's biggest parking operation is deducted, this will leave the Conservative-run authority with around ?33.6 million to reinvest in local transport-related schemes.

Under the new approach, parking attendants can earn bonuses of up to ?800 a year if they minimise the number of wrongly-issued tickets. And they have been told to be more lenient, especially with delivery drivers.

In June, the latest month for which figures are available, 79,062 tickets were issued - down 7.4 per cent on the same month last year - and the number of complaints has fallen.

This month the council will strip out 250 metres of double yellow lines in Soho, replacing them with more meters and residents' and loading bays. Similar reviews of restrictions in Covent Garden and the rest of the West End will follow.

Colin Barrow, Westminster's cabinet member responsible for parking, said: "If anyone was under the impression that we were simply talking a good game about changing our parking service for the better, then this should help change their minds.

"Parking attendants have been rebriefed, the incentive scheme has been overhauled and we are taking a new approach to loading times for delivery drivers. All these things are driving down the numbers of tickets being issued.

"We are taking a financial hit. It is one which we can deal with and it will not be hitting services, but it is a significant sum of money which is not now being taken from the pockets of London's motorists."

However, neighbouring Kensington and Chelsea is consulting residents on adopting a stronger approach to parking by non-residents. The only London borough - apart from the Corporation of London - to have parking controls in every street, it may extend its residents-only parking controls to Sundays and bank holidays from next April.

This would see them operate seven days a week, from 8.30am until 10pm in the busiest areas around Kensington High Street and Knightsbridge. Visitors would still be able to use pay-and-display machines which charge up to ?3 an hour in designated spaces, staying free on Sundays.

The council says there is growing support among residents to expand the controls, with one group, the Brompton Association, reporting an "overwhelming majority" of members in favour.

Pressure on parking spaces has grown with more people shopping on Sundays, and since South Kensington's museums introduced free entry. As the capital's most densely populated borough, demand was already high - with five parking permits, which cost ?104 a year, issued for every three residents' spaces.

A Kensington and Chelsea spokesman said: "We are looking at this because our residents have asked us to. We don't envisage having Sunday parking controls throughout the borough, but there are certain areas where the growth of Sunday shopping has meant there is increased congestion and problems arising from poor parking."