Costly CCTV scheme to tackle school parking congestion

A scheme to tackle parking issues outside seven county schools has raised £15,784 through penalties, but cost £20,506 to run, councillors have been told.

Members of Lincolnshire County Council’s Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee were told that of the schools taking part in the trial CCTV enforcement scheme, two had seen a huge number of observed parking offences and Penalty Charge Notices compared to the others.

They were William Alvey Primary School, in Sleaford, which had 152 observed offences and 110 penalties handed out, while The Priory Witham, in Lincoln, had 170 and 138 respectively.

The rest saw relatively lower figures with Sir Francis Hill School, in Lincoln, marking 31 observations and 18 offences, National Junior School in Grantham had 20 with no charges, Leslie Manser Primary School in Lincoln had 25 and 10, Boston West Academy had 40 and 18 and St Thomas’ School, in Boston had 25 and 8.

Councillors agreed to extend the scheme by a further 12 months and set up a working group to look at how to move forward.

Following the meeting Coun Michael Brookes said: “We didn’t think it was right just to cut the trial off. We needed to continue with it and know where we’re going at the end of this 12 months.

“There are some issues coming out of the schools. One of the main things is that while the CCTV vehicle is there everything’s fine because people obey the regulations as soon as it goes they’re parking back on the zig zag lines again.

“We’re anxious to do something for all the schools and not just the eight

“This is a problem outside all of the schools so do we need other measures? Do we need to be painting double yellow lines outside schools so they can be picked up by Civil Parking Enforcement officers?

“That all costs money so there’s a whole host of things that need to be looked at.”

Councillors were told a number of other solutions had been looked at as the scheme progressed, including the installation of six fixed cameras — however, that was estimated to cost in the region of £125,000 plus staffing costs.

A second vehicle had not been considered but was said not to be ‘financially viable or practical’ for the current scheme due to the limited number of sites.

The pricing for the vehicle being used has been renegotiated for the next year.

Members of the public had been ‘so supportive’ of the scheme said council officers.