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.\u00a0The 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. \u00a0The announcement states that the new police service will be redesigned to meet current priorities and in light of a challenging budget to remain efficiently \u00a0structured:<\/p>\n
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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Decode that and you get the ring of “efficiency savings” in your ears.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Enforcement of parking in Scotland has been delivered by local police forces.\u00a0 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.\u00a0So 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But this could have unintended consequences. The fear is that more car parks will be built (and paid for by the public purse). \u00a0I 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!<\/em>). \u00a0Public transport to and from North Berwick has never been so good, but it could be even better!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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.\u00a0The 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 … Continue reading Free Parking!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1459,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/parking-chaos\/","url_meta":{"origin":1067,"position":0},"title":"Parking Chaos","author":"templar","date":"October 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Locals and the press are prone to hyperbole when they go on a rant about parking, traffic, temporary lights, or even our lovely new crossings, though I object too mainly on account of their garishness. Mayhem, chaos, anarchy in our sleepy town? Well not really, not even the nightlife reaches\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1442,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/its-aboot-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":1067,"position":1},"title":"Its aboot time","author":"templar","date":"October 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It did not take Police Scotland long to review traffic warden services, and the plan, entirely expected, is to remove them as a police responsibility, with in all likelihood the local authority taking on the role. If you were paying attention you may have noticed that parking offences were decriminalised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Illegal parking is rife - that is a problem","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2012\/07\/DSC_0052-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1073,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/are-the-police-shutting-up-shop\/","url_meta":{"origin":1067,"position":2},"title":"Are the police shutting up shop?","author":"Barodunum","date":"July 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Unprecedented financial challenges are facing all public authorities and the police are not immune. \u00a0There is a continuing requirement to find savings while providing best value for public services. So what will this mean for community based policing? The Chief Constable has apparently commissioned a review of counter services provided\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":350,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/work-with-us-lothian-and-borders-police-survey\/","url_meta":{"origin":1067,"position":3},"title":"Work with us! Lothian and Borders Police Survey","author":"templar","date":"May 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Police want to know what your views are on the level of Policing in your local area. Lothian and Borders Police have just launched a public perception survey which closes on the 30th June 2012. Options: Do it: at a police station, not necessarily your own. Do it: on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":708,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/launch-of-new-police-101-non-emergency-number\/","url_meta":{"origin":1067,"position":4},"title":"Launch of new police 101 non-emergency number","author":"templar","date":"February 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Launching across Scotland today the 21st February 2013, a new non-emergency number - 101 - that will replace the vast range of existing police force non-emergency numbers. The introduction of the 101 non-emergency number will give people a new way to contact the police, seek advice, speak to a local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":295,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/shopping-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":1067,"position":5},"title":"A Political Shopping List","author":"templar","date":"April 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In the weeks ahead you may be wondering what to ask local politicians. \u00a0Here's some things that you could ask about, in no particular order:- Will you support the retention and improvements to residents parking at the Abbeylands end Dunbar High Street? What will you do to secure the Abbey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}