Wrexham traffic wardens issues 7,349 fines last year

By Matt Sims

WREXHAM’S traffic wardens issued 7,349 fines in the last year – exceeding their target by more than 1,500 and costing the council an extra £13,000 in processing costs.

Parking enforcement officers in the county were so keen they even beat bigger targets laid down for the next two years, with the vast majority of penalty charge notices issued in the town centre.

Because the processing of fines has been outsourced by Wrexham Council to Denbighshire, the local authority had to pay a levy on every penalty sent to the neighbouring authority – which cost the council more than double the amount it had expected to pay.

More than 59 per cent of fines – a total of 4,348 – were issued for a variety of ‘on street’ parking offences in Wrexham town centre, while nearly 39 per cent – 2,859 – were handed out in Wrexham Council’s car parks.

The total was not only higher than originally anticipated, but also more than the 6,600 target set each year for 2009/10 and 2010/11.

The figures will be discussed by a meeting of the council’s environment and regeneration scrutiny committee today.

A report to go before councillors by chief transportation officer Martin Wright reads: “Parking services not only exceeded the levels of penalty charge notices estimated for year one but also the estimate for subsequent years.

“This is a positive sign that the service is delivering what is expected.

”For each fine processed by the Wales Penalty Processing Partnership (WPPP), based in Denbighshire, Wrexham Council was charged a levy of £6.55 – more than predicted because other authorities did not issue their expected levels of notices.

In his report Mr Wright says: “The expected payment in 2008/09 due to WPPP was £26,150 whereas the actual payment was £53,000.

“As a consequence... the CPE (civil parking enforcement) budget was overspent by £13,000, which was absorbed by the transportation and asset management department.”

Mr Wright goes on to claim in the report that, since the council took over responsibility for parking enforcement from police, improvements have been seen across Wrexham.

He says: “Anecdotal evidence suggest that the county borough’s traffic flow has improved, parking at the county’s schools is safer, there has been a reduction in misuse of the blue badge scheme and it is easier to park in the town centre.”