The problem of illegal parking has been brought into the spotlight after figures shed light on the number of fines issued to irresponsible vehicle owners.
County council parking enforcement has now returned to normal pre-pandemic levels, it said, with 938 more fines issued in the first 10 months of the 2021-22 financial year in the borough of Barrow than in the whole of 2020-21.
“There’s lots of problems in Barrow,” said county councillor Bill McEwan.
“It’s hard to catch more people because we have not got a lot of wardens, and there’s also the problem that they can’t police everywhere, so there’s going to be a lot that fall through the net.”
The parking figures that Cllr McEwan was commenting on were revealed in a report produced ahead of a meeting of Cumbria County Council’s local committee for Barrow tomorrow.
Cllr McEwan also referred to ongoing reports of food delivery drivers parking on double yellow lines in Barrow’s Crellin Street.
The report, produced by Angela Jones, the county council’s executive director of economy and infrastructure, also highlighted this problem, saying: “The parking team is looking at specific issues with the locality, and one ongoing issue is the number of food delivery drivers operating in Barrow town centre.
“Parking services are exploring new ways to deter his type of behaviour, including the removal of vehicles from the highway of persistent offenders via our partners Equita, who are Cumbria County Council’s enforcement agents.
“The parking service also continues work with Cumbria Constabulary on this issue and has taken part in several joint operations.”
A meeting of the county council on March 17 is to consider a request from its local committee for Barrow.
The request is that the county council asks for devolved powers from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to clamp and remove untaxed vehicles.
Last month, it was announced at a meeting of Barrow Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny committee that a working group of five borough councillors was going to be set up to discuss the issues in Crellin Street.
Cllr Martin McLeavy, who was to be chair of this group, said at the time that he understood – courtesy of information from other councillors – that ‘fines have been issued to Uber drivers who have ripped them up and thrown them away’.
Cllr McLeavy also said he had heard reports from members of the public and other councillors of fights breaking out among the food delivery staff.
