A council has today unveiled its latest deterrent to prevent dangerous and inconsiderate parking outside schools in the borough.
Nottingham County Council’s second CCTV road safety car will officially take to the road today (Tuesday 22)
The car has been put into action to help prevent dangerous and inconsiderate parking outside borough schools which the council says can seriously jeopardise road safety for children and is also a significant source of complaints and requests for parking enforcement.
Councillors agreed to the new car following the high demand for the current vehicle – which has been helping enforce ‘keep clear’ markings outside schools since March 2016
Latest figures show that 1500 penalty charge notices (PCNs) have been issued to motorists since March 2016 , with two-thirds of these (around 1000) PCNs for dangerously and inconsiderately on ‘keep clear’ markings outside schools and a third (500) on bus stops.
Parking which prevents a bus from picking or dropping off at a bus stop can cause congestion behind the bus if it is unable to move. In addition, it prevents passengers with mobility problems or pushchairs getting on or off the bus at the raised kerb edge.
Councillor John Cottee, Chairman of Communities and Place committee said: “This new vehicle is part of our commitment to road safety around schools in the county and will help to address this genuine problems of dangerous or inconsiderate parking in many areas around school drop off and pick up times.
“We are keen to be able to meet the high demand we have had from schools, parents and others in local communities who have got in touch requesting this car to visit their area to help address these issues – so this new vehicle is essential for this as we have more than 330 schools spread across the county
“Today we are also releasing as series of video clips showing examples of the sort of dangerous and inconsiderate parking captured by the current CCTV vehicle in the last few weeks”
Cllr Cottee added: “I must make clear that our purpose in using a car-based enforcement system is not to raise revenue, in fact the existing CCTV car runs at a slight financial deficit for the Council. Our aim is to improve safety and stop dangerous and inconsiderate parking near schools and bus stops, which we know causes a great deal of concern.”
The new vehicle cost £45,000 including the camera and software costs as well as maintenance costs for the first year.
All money generated by the penalty charge notices (PCN) go directly towards paying for the car and ongoing running costs of the equipment, driver and software support. A PCN issued is £70 which is reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days.
Brilliant bit of kit. One of the big problems is ridle parents getting up too late and too bone idle to walk to school and back. Yep, I can understand concerns with very young children for obvious reasons but secondary school kids? Oh come on, we moan they get fat then use a car every morning and afternoon to ferry them back and forth and the schools are swamped with cars everywhere, no where to park and so they act inconsiderately and ignorantly which brings us to this problem. Get up 20 mins earlier, burn a few calories and consider WALKING them!