Councillors' concerns over on street parking in Rasen

Deputy Mayor Steve Bunney asked at last week’s Town Council meeting whether enforcement officers were patrolling Rasen in the evenings.

He spoke about vehicles causing a problem by parking outside takeaways in King Street - one of the busiest routes through the town.

Coun Bunney said: “The problem of these cars outside the takeaways on King Street is very frequent.

“I would have thought that if somebody had been doing evening patrols, we would have heard about it, and I don’t think that’s happened.

“One of our issues appears to be that the parking enforcement officers say a particular problem is not their concern and that it is a police matter, and when you ask the police they say something different.”

Police used to be responsible for on-street parking, but that all changed several years ago when enforcement powers were handed on to county councils.

Coun Bunney’s comments came as figures show Enforcement Officers from Lincolnshire County Council handed out 78 ‘tickets’ in Rasen for on-street parking offences in the last 12 months.

In addition, there were 550 instances of enforcement officers logging vehicle information - without actually issuing a ticket.

The figures were revealed by County Councillor Lewis Strange in his report presented at the monthly meeting of the town council last week.

Coun Strange said: “During the last year, there have been 550 warnings (observations) issued on main streets (in Market Rasen) and 78 enforcement orders issued.”

A county council spokesman did not comment on the evening patrols, but did confirm the figures presented by Coun Strange were correct.

The spokesman said: “I don’t think 78 tickets is particularly high - it’s probably what you would expect for a town Market Rasen’s size.”

The discussion about on-street parking comes as two hours free parking is set to be introduced in Rasen car parks owned by West Lindsey District Council.

More on parking in West Lindsey

Reports published on Lincolnshire County Council’s website help give a clearer view about the issue of on-street parking across West Lindsey.

Between April and October 2017, there have been 723 Penalty Charge Notices issued.

Of these, 134 were challenged, with a review leading to 48 tickets being overturned.

Figures show that from April 2016 to March 2017, 1,636 Penalty Charge Notices were issued

across West Lindsey.

Of these, 339 notices were reviewed with 140 of the challenges successful.

According to a civil parking enforcement report also published on the county council website, Enforcement Officers made 34 patrols in Market Rasen between April 2016 and March 2017, compared to 36 in Horncastle and 326 in Louth.