MORE than 500 ’warning letters’ were issued in the first two months of parking enforcement by Monmouthshire County Council.

Two officers from the county council’s civil parking enforcement (CPE) team answered questions at a town council community affairs committee on Monday (14th October) and gave an overview of the current and future working of the team.

William Fitzpatrick, manager of the CPE, said that Wales was one of the last regions to take over parking enforcement from the police as England had adopted the method some years ago.

They took over the duty from the police on 1st April, but for the first two months, only issued warning notes, the equivalent to about £30,000 in parking fines.

The area they cover includes the four county towns - Monmouth, Abergavenny, Caldicot and Chepstow - as well as all areas between such as Usk, Raglan, Magor and Rogiet but only has six officers covering the area.

He admitted that on some days, a town such as Monmouth would have no cover at all but is keen to deal with the on-street parking that causes problems, the main focus will be the four towns.

Before the enforcement, they were responsible for collecting the money from the car parking machines, but that has now been contracted out and the team focus on the parking issues.

Other aspects that will come under their remit will be fly tipping, dog fouling and public space protection, monitoring activities taking place in public parks and spaces.

They were keen to stress that this was not a money-generating scheme but the service would pay for itself after three years.

Mr Fitzpatrick said:“Our aim is to keep traffic flowing and make sure residents and tourists are able to park in the car parks but we need to exercise our powers with integrity.”

In response to a question on how many complaints it would take before a response is triggered, he said that all complaints are assessed by a supervisor, “we look at every complaint we receive and then set our priorities for the day”.

“Issuing tickets has been effective in solving problems and then we will keep an eye to make sure the problem does not re-occur,” he said, adding that they are doing their best to cover schooltime dropping off.

Councillors said they had noticed that parking matters had improved since the team had taken on enforcement and were “very encouraged by what’s happening”.

They admitted that the uniform they were wearing to begin with had been “totally inappropriate” and even the epaulettes gave no clue to their task, but now they wear hi-visibility jackets to ensure a high awareness of their presence.

They will ticket certain street for a while if there is a reported problem, “but then the cars creep back in once we stop, we noticed that by Iceland” he said.

Confirming they deal with parking in front of dropped kerbs, a problem in Goldwire Lane highlighted by Cllr Jamie Treharne, Mr Fitzpatrick added they do not deal with obstructions.

There are two levels of parking charge notices, high and low, incurring a fine of £70 and £50 respectively.

If a PCN is unpaid it will increase by 50 per cent after they have issued a charge certificate and it will be registered as a debt. Unpaid debts will be recovered by enforcement agents and will incur additional charges.

Anyone can report a parking problem by using the ‘My Mon’ app or by ringing Monmouthshire County Council on 01633 644702.