Clampdown on illegal parking will start to bite next month
MOTORISTS parking illegally in many Dearne area communities could find themselves at greater risk being fined in future.
In addition to routine enforcement work, an extra 23 hours of patrol time is to be provided for communities across south Barnsley, including the major population centres of Hoyland, Elsecar, Wombwell and Darfield, in addition to many surrounding villages.
Five hours of that time will be dedicated to patrolling the streets around schools, which become notorious traffic bottlenecks around the start and end of the school day at many locations, due to parents dropping off or picking up children by car.
That can lead to illegal parking, which adds to congestion on already crowded roads, as well as potential road safety issues.
South Area Council, a sub-body of Barnsley Council, operates to provide localised services and buys-in addition patrol services.
Councillors have now been told recruitment will be started to provide the staff who will cover additional hours.
It is expected the new arrangements will be in place for the start of the new school year, in September.
The cost to South Area Council will be slightly more than £30,000.
It is also possible that patrol officers could be tasked to work during evenings and at weekends to provide cover during those periods as part of their routine contracts.
They were told the enforcement team was working so “that the rotas were being redesigned to extend coverage contractually over weekends and evenings rather than relying on overtime”.
The present arrangement is for staff to work regular hours covering 8am to 6pm, from Monday to Friday.
The five hours of ‘school cover’ per week will be re-allocated to areas known as hot-spot for parking violations during holiday periods.
Councillors have also asked to be provided with more fine detail on where parking problems exist.
The enforcement team have street-by-street data, with ‘heat maps’ to show hot-spots, which then can make available to councillors.
The South Area Council provides a range of other services, including a welfare rights advice service, a caretaker team to work on improving neighbourhoods which is costing £175,000 this year, up from the previous contract of £121,000. New staff are being recruited, to extend the scope of the service.