Council to clamp down on traffic offenders

A new initiative has been launched to clamp cars after Edinburgh city council failed to collect £2.6m worth of parking fines.

A clamping regime has been introduced, as a last resort, to crack down on regular offenders who continuously fail to pay parking fines. This is the first time that a Scottish authority has been given legitimate power to impound cars but it appears to be the only means of resolving the issues of unpaid tickets.

In the last three years, 23,000 tickets have been issued and ignored by people parking in the capital, and offenders include overseas tourists who visit the city and leave the country without paying the fine.

Joel Sked, a student at Edinburgh Napier University, told The Journal: “My opinion is that parking restrictions are there whether you agree with them or not. I admit some are very frustrating, but, if you are doing it all the time, the council should be given the right to ‘teach a lesson’.”

It is the Council’s responsibility to deal with all parking offences, and if payment notices are ignored, the cases are passed onto the sheriff officers who attempt to collect the outstanding debts on their behalf. This course of action does not apply to the foreign motorists as relevant legislation must be followed to approach them for payment.

Another problematic issue is that many offending cars are not registered with the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which makes it harder to trace payments for outstanding fines. The traffic offenders in Edinburgh, along with the ones from abroad, are a constant source of trouble for the Council and the city is struggling to sort out the unpaid sums.

Edinburgh Napier student Cally MacWilliam said: “I think the Council need to work harder to catch traffic offenders, as it is their job to enforce parking tickets when they are given out and too much money is being lost for it to be ignored.”