How Civil Parking Enforcement operates in Cambridge
Prior to the introduction of Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (now known as Civil Parking Enforcement or CPE) in Cambridge in October 2004, the police enforced parking offences, now known as parking contraventions. Limited efforts were devoted to this as there were many higher priority calls on their resources and very few parking contraventions were consequently detected.
Cambridge is a Special Enforcement Area, which means that the Councils are now responsible for enforcing parking contraventions rather than the police. Cambridge City Council and its contracted Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs, formerly known as parking attendants) manage parking enforcement in this Special Enforcement Area on behalf of the County.
Copies of our Enforcement Practice Manual and Penalty Charge Notice Case Manual can be downloaded on this website and offer further guidance on Parking Enforcement in Cambridge.
Keeping Cambridge moving
Anyone who drives in Cambridge knows of the problems caused by one irresponsible motorist parking in the wrong place. The majority of motorists use the city’s car parks and parking spaces correctly. But a vehicle parked incorrectly on a street or even a bus lane can not only be dangerous but cause delays, queuing and inconvenience for other road users.
We ensure Cambridge keeps moving !.
How parking enforcement benefits everyone
• it reduces blocking of bus lanes and major traffic routes by inconsiderately parked vehicles
• it reduces parking by non-permit holders in residents’ parking bays
• it reduces parking by non-blue badge holders in disabled parking bays
• it improves compliance with necessary parking restrictions
• it improves traffic management and increases demand for Park and Ride
• it encourages correct, sensible and safe parking in Cambridge
• it reduces congestion on the roads
• it helps the emergency services cross the city
• it makes it safer for drivers and pedestrians
• it enables buses to operate more effectively
• it improves air quality, health and the general environment
• it keeps Cambridge moving !!
If all motorists used proper car parks and parking bays, Cambridge’s streets would be much less congested and a lot safer !!.
What is income from parking enforcement spent on?.
Whilst it is not intended to make any particular excess from parking enforcement activities, any surplus is spent on public transport
improvements, improvements to Park and Ride services and car parks.
Some useful tips
• There are no “grace periods” when resident parking permits expire, similarly a “pay and display” ticket should be clearly displayed in the vehicle at the time of arrival, and not purchased some time after arrival.
• Observation periods of around 5 minutes will be used to identify if parked vehicles are, for instance, unloading/loading on yellow lines where this is permitted; equally, some contraventions can attract instant PCNs.
• Particular care should be exercised when parking in a “resident bay or pay and display bay”, for instance, as it is not unusual to find resident and pay and display bays in the same street.
• CEOs will normally use digital cameras to take supporting photographs when serving PCNs; these photographs are usually available for viewing on-line by the driver/ owner of the vehicle within 24 hours and may also be sent out with a “Notice to Owner” form.
• In fairness to the vast majority of drivers who do pay their parking tickets we will make selected use of our powers to remove those vehicles with a history of unpaid tickets (PCNs), where a tiny minority of thoughtless drivers continually flout parking regulations (a number of these vehicles are NOT registered with DVLA).
• Certain parking contraventions now attract a higher penalty charge, including parking in a disabled bay without displaying a valid blue badge.
• PCNs may be served where vehicles are observed parked on “zig zag lines” on approaches to pedestrian crossings either by CEOs or by the Police.
• CEOs can inspect blue badges so we can ensure that they are both valid and also properly used by and on behalf of bona-fide disabled users.
• In certain instances PCNs may be posted where it may not be possible or impractical to serve tickets.
CEOs have very limited discretionary powers when it comes to parking enforcement and are not paid on the basis of the number of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) they serve. This is to ensure fairness, transparency and equality of treatment as well as preventing the possibility of corruption and minimising the risk of verbal/ physical assault. Despite this very necessary measure, legal action (with Police support) will be pursued in response to any unwarranted threats / assaults on these officers.
Once a Penalty Charge Notice has been printed, only authorised council officers have the ability to cancel it.
CEOs may serve a PCN where they observe a parking contravention, but there is a small amount of leeway in how they do this. If they see a driver parking in contravention they are expected to ask them to move the vehicle and will only normally serve the PCN if their request is refused or ignored.
(However, just because a CEO is nearby, it does not mean that they will always realise that a parking regulation is being contravened. An example of this would be if a CEO was observing another vehicle and they failed to register that another contravention was occurring nearby until after the fact, not because they want to serve a PCN, but because they were preoccupied with the task at hand. If you have seen them, it doesn't automatically follow that they have seen you).
We have two teams to administer CPE; one team monitors the contract with Legion Parking Services and ensures CEOs are doing all that they should and in the right fashion by checking that:-
· asigned patrol areas are covered
· all streets are covered
· enforcement requests are carried out on a timely basis
· agreed guidelines are adhered to
· behaviour is correct and approriate
· parking contraventions are evenly and consistently enforced
The parking enforcement services team investigate, consider and answer any challenges made about a PCN, once it has been served. These highly trained Council officers operate within well defined guidelines, they consider each challenge on it’s own merits and are authorised to uphold or cancel PCNs. They may cancel a PCN where they considered it was wrongly served or where they were satisfied that an exempt activity was taking place that wasn't observed by the CEO, such as loading/unloading-where permitted.
They also exercise discretion and may cancel a PCN where there are acceptable mitigating circumstances such as a genuine medical emergency or an unforseen and unavoidable vehicle breakdown.
We publish our full accounts each year to ensure transparency and openess. These and many other reports regarding parking regulations and traffic management can be found at the County Council website at this link. Please select the Cambridge Traffic Management Area Joint Committee from the drop down list.
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/transport-and-streets/parking/about-us/