Not long ago at a Community and Police Partnership meeting Peter Forsyth intimated that decriminalising parking offences was back on the agenda since Police Scotland had been set up. The rationale is not driven by the illogicality of parking being still a (quasi?) criminal offence, but by the opportunity to improve specialist policing and supporting local policing in local communities. The announcement states that the new police service will be redesigned to meet current priorities and in light of a challenging budget to remain efficiently structured:
With the transition to Police Scotland, it is imperative that we critically examine all our processes to ensure that we are making the best use of our resources to focus on keeping people safe.
Decode that and you get the ring of “efficiency savings” in your ears.
Enforcement of parking in Scotland has been delivered by local police forces. The Road Traffic Act 1991 introduced provisions for decriminalisation of most non-endorsable parking, though I imagine only urban areas will have taken this up. So there will be a review, in partnership with local authorities, as to how this service is best delivered in the future. This is long overdue and will jolt sleepy and indolent local authorities into action.
It sounds almost implausible that the budgets for policing parking would be anywhere sufficient in most rural areas to enable this to be passed easily over to local authorities to administer (and then outsource), but at the same time it seems inconceivable that a review would be initiated that did not effect a major change. You’d think the police had more important things to do – like catch criminals? While in Scotland the political instincts of our policy makers might be to deliver a patchwork of local solutions for local problems, the logic of a centralised force militates decidedly against this being an outcome.
My best guess (and I have no particular insights or insider information – so could be wrong) is to expect a radical departure from the somewhat laissez faire current state of affairs. Expect parking charges to become the norm. This will assist with meeting carbon targets, as more people leave the car at home, it should help also with making our streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians and even brightening up our streets. It also respects the polluter pays principle.
But this could have unintended consequences. The fear is that more car parks will be built (and paid for by the public purse). I personally think it is a criminal offence to be creating any additional parking at this point in time in most East Lothian towns. North Berwick comes to mind where there are shameful plans to desecrate the few areas of town wildness to pander to lazy car owners (Ed. That includes me!). Public transport to and from North Berwick has never been so good, but it could be even better!