Rotherham defies Minister over school gate parking cameras

Rotherham Council said yesterday that the plan, which has cost £70,000 of taxpayers’ money in equipment alone, is to target “dangerous” drivers.

Roads outside the schools will be monitored by the authority’s parking services team, equipped with a “new mobile CCTV system geared to tackling illegal and dangerous parking across the borough.”

A council spokesman said: 
“Installed in a clearly marked council vehicle, the new £70,000 CCTV system will allow the team to take images of illegally parked vehicles anywhere Traffic Regulation Orders are in place and 
where stopping is prohibited at any time.

“Evidence will be reviewed by a qualified civil enforcement officer and if appropriate, penalty charge notices will then be issued through the post to the registered keeper of the vehicle.”

The spokesman added: “The full cost of the system, which is approved by the Department 
for Transport and is already in use by other authorities such as Barnsley and Sheffield Council, was obtained from the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership.”

Councillor Gerald Smith, cabinet member for regeneration and development on Rotherham Council, said he believes the camera will act as a “real deterrent to people who persist in illegal parking.”

He added: “We are sure that it will improve road safety and deal with concerns in many local communities, particularly outside schools, where bad parking is an ongoing problem.

“This is obviously a very portable system that can be used at any specific location that is experiencing parking problems.”

The system has been trialled over the summer, but fines are now being issued for the first 
time.

Last week, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles set out plans to ban local authorities in England from using CCTV cameras and cars with automatic number plate recognition technology to catch motorists parking illegally.

A Government consultation paper will suggest amending legislation underpinning the Traffic Management Act 2004 to outlaw the practice as part of a wider review of the way parking restrictions are enforced.

Mr Pickles highlighted that 75 councils had between them issued almost a million fines using mobile cameras and 10 million from static cameras over a five-year period.

He said public support for CCTV was undermined if cameras were used to “raise money for council coffers” rather than tackling crime, describing parking “spy cars” as a “step too far”.

Mr Pickles has regularly criticised the amount of money generated by councils through parking charges and fines which Government figures suggest stood at £223m in 1997 and will hit £635m this year.

A spokesman for Rotherham Council added: “We are obviously aware of Mr Pickles’ views, but after buying the new system earlier this year it makes sense to use it to tackle dangerous parking at ‘hot-spots’ until any changes to the legislation actually come into force.”

Neighbouring authorities in Sheffield and Barnsley already use mobile CCTV cameras to try and tackle parking around schools.

Bradford Council, meanwhile, announced back in May that it was introducing a parking enforcement car, fitted with automatic number plate recognition technology.

The vehicle is used to target drivers who park on zig-zag lines outside schools, at pedestrian crossings, in bus stops and on double yellow lines.

Council bosses in other areas across the UK, including Manchester, London and South Tyneside, also use such technology.