PARKING chaos was this week predicted in Tavistock, following a police decision not to replace the town?s traffic warden. During a meeting of the town council?s finance committee last week, members heard the mayor and town clerk discussed parking in Tavistock during a meeting with police Chief Insp Tony Steer. Town clerk Col Roger Howard told members: ?It became clear that the police would not be replacing the Tavistock traffic warden, nor would their PCSOs be undertaking parking enforcement.? The committee heard the new system of Civil Parking Enforcement, due to be implemented next April, would be operated by local authorities. But what happens in the interim has sparked fears over road safety and traffic congestion. The committee heard that Tavistock county councillor Roy Connelly had urged Chief Constable Stephen Otter to reconsider. Cllr Connelly said major parking and congestion existed in Tavistock. He said: ?This will certainly get worse during the next twelve months, once the majority of new houses currently under construction in Tavistock are completed. This will result in a major increase of traffic movements each day.? Cllr Connelly said once the public realised no parking enforcement was being carried out, ?chaos? would ensue. ?This will result in public safety being put at risk, with the additional problems of congestion and managed traffic flows,? said Cllr Connelly. He said he had been informed that enforcement would take place elsewhere in West Devon ? in Okehampton, for example. ?This I find difficult to understand, given that Tavistock is the largest centre in West Devon,? said Cllr Connelly, who urged the Chief Constable to confirm the police would undertake parking enforcement in Tavistock until April 2008, when civil parking enforcement regulations were expected to be introduced. Cllr Philip Sanders said the town council should write in support of Cllr Connelly?s letter. He said: ?We should be saying we deplore this and are looking to them to find an interim solution, while the chances of finding someone with a yellow band around their hat is almost nil.? Police Insp Ian Milligan said the issue of policing on street parking during the next ten months was not limited to Tavistock. ?It is a challenge for the whole of Devon with the exception of Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay where the local authorities have already successfully taken over parking enforcement,? he said. ?Unlike other areas, West Devon has retained one traffic warden who covers the area to the best of his ability. All police officers can and do issue fixed penalty notices for parking. ?It has never been the intention of the constabulary to allow police community support officers to become replacement traffic wardens, but some do have powers to enforce parking regulations and again do exercise these as necessary.? Insp Milligan said the policing of parking had to be set against day-to-day priorities and police concentration would be on areas where officers believed there were issues of road safety and obstruction to the safe flow of traffic, rather than routine enforcement of parking controls. He added: ?I am happy to meet with the town council at any time to discuss this matter further.?
