Parking Annual Report 2023 - 2024

Published on

September 2024

Last reviewed on

January 2024

The provision and management of Council controlled parking in South Tyneside is a very important function undertaken by the Council. Parking can be the subject of intense public interest including attracting both local and national media. The Council’s primary aims related to parking management are to support the economic activity and viability of South Tyneside’s town centres and other local shopping areas and to reduce congestion in the interests of all highway users.

Up to the 30th March 2008 South Tyneside Council operated parking enforcement under the Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) legislation in accordance with The Road Traffic Act 1991. From the 31st March 2008 the Council has operated parking under the Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) legislation in accordance with the Traffic Management Act 2004.

The Traffic Management Act 2004 states that Enforcement Authorities should produce an annual report about their enforcement activities. The report should be published and as a minimum it should cover the financial, statistical and other data (including any parking or CPE targets). This report describes these parking and other related activities undertaken by the Council.

The Council’s transport priorities are to improve safety, accessibility and air quality and to reduce congestion. Parking facilities and the way they are used contribute to achieving these priorities, and it is important therefore that they are appropriately managed and controlled.

The rationale behind this report is that it helps to make it clear that the council is operating the scheme satisfactorily and more openness enables the public to see that this is the case, which in turn helps to increase the public’s understanding of civil parking enforcement at a local level.

Parking Enforcement Charter

The Council has produced a parking enforcement charter entitled 'Guidance on Parking in South Tyneside' which includes useful information for motorists about traffic signing and the circumstances in which a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) may be issued and what to do if you are issued with one.

The amount of observation time that civil enforcement officers give before a PCN is issued is included and the charter also provides guidelines for appeals staff to follow when representations are received from motorists who have received a PCN. To ensure fairness and consistency all appeals are considered on their own merits. The Council’s Parking Enforcement Charter can be viewed online.

The Council’s approach to parking enforcement is to be fair but firm and the parking enforcement charter outlines how we intend to deliver the best possible service to motorists.

Off-Street Car Parks

The Council has 18 chargeable off-street car parks located in South Shields town centre and along the Foreshore area which operate a pay and display system and 23 free off-street car parks located in other areas as shown in the tables below:

Chargeable On-Street Car Parking

The Council has 219 chargeable on-street parking bays located in South Shields which operate a pay and display system of parking as shown in the table below:

Enforcement of waiting and loading restrictions and parking places is undertaken across the whole of the borough.

The Council operated parking enforcement under the Decriminalised Parking Enforcement legislation in accordance with The Road Traffic Act 1991 from the 1 February 2007 up to the 30 March 2008.

On 31 March 2008 in accordance with government legislation, the relevant provisions of the RTA 1991 were repealed and part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 (TMA) and the associated regulations introduced Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE). The provisions for CPE largely replicated and updated the arrangements for DPE.

CPE introduced some changes in terminology and differential parking penalties (higher and lower charges) are now applied depending on the seriousness of the contravention. For example, parking in a place where it is always prohibited, such as on double yellow lines, is considered to be more serious than overstaying where parking is permitted, such as in a parking place. The current levels in South Tyneside of higher and lower charge are £70 and £50 respectively and for bus lanes £60 (Prior to Legislation Changes in May 2022). Current legislation brings charges for bus lane Penalty Charge Notices in line with Regulation 9 Penalty Charge Notices.

South Tyneside Council provide a cashless service via Pay by Phone. Information on the service can be found in the car parks where the service is available.

The system allows drivers to pay cashless and update their parking session, without a need to return to their vehicle. The service provides a text reminder service.

Blue Badge Enforcement

Disabled persons’ bays are placed at strategic locations across town centres and in Council car parks Blue Badge holders can park for up to three hours on the public highway as long as the Blue Badge is displayed along with their clock.

Civil Enforcement Officers monitor the use of Blue Badges as part of their normal work and take enforcement action in cases of misuse.

School Enforcement

The regulations for enforcement of schools at opening and closing times are seen as a key priority to ensure the safe movement of children and pedestrians.

The parking services work closely with the schools and we regularly patrol schools with parking restriction within our borough - however we cannot be at every school at drop off and pick up times every day therefore the civil enforcement team concentrate on attending schools where we have received reports of unsafe parking. Data is provided by Traffic and Road Safety.

The enforcement patrol is there to ensure that the school keep clear lines and restrictions are clear of traffic.

Frequency of Patrols

Civil Enforcement Officers will patrol areas with parking restrictions as much as possible.

South Shields Town Centre is where most congestion occurs, and we aim to visit this area regularly. Other areas such as primary routes into the borough and local shopping centres, permit areas will also be patrolled regularly with other areas on a lesser and 'as and when' basis.

Staffing Levels

The Council’s Parking Team establishment consists of:

Each Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) undergoes a minimum 10 days of training to achieve the required standard for Civil Enforcement Officers and then 'shadows' a more experienced staff member until they are familiarised with their role and management is satisfied that an appropriate level of competency is established. The Council encourages parking staff to be customer focussed.

CEOs are suitably uniformed and are equipped with a hand-held device that keeps them in constant contact with their operations base. They have electronic handheld equipment that can issue a PCN via a printer and also incorporates a camera to record photographic evidence.

Types of Contraventions

There are over 70 contraventions that could be enforced depending on what is contained within relevant traffic regulation orders. These range from enforcing yellow lines on the streets to vehicles being parked outside bay markings in a car park.

The police remain responsible for endorsable offences such as dangerous parking, obstruction, failure to comply with police 'No parking' signs placed in emergencies, and any vehicle where security or other traffic policing issues are involved, including the need to close roads or set up diversions.

Bus Lane and Bus Stop Enforcement

As part of powers granted to this Council to enforce parking restrictions throughout the borough, we were also given the additional power to enforce bus lanes.

There are bus lanes / gates around the borough of which enforcement is carried out.

Bus lanes have been installed in South Tyneside to generally increase journey time reliability and safety for certain vehicles and to encourage the use of sustainable transport such as public transport and cycling.

Bus lanes / gates have also been installed in the interest of road safety, by reducing unnecessary traffic levels and removing conflicts for pedestrians at various times.

Inappropriate parking in bus stops throughout the borough is also a problem, as this stops buses reaching the kerbside and prevents passengers obtaining the benefit of using the low floor bus facilities. This is a particular problem for the elderly, disabled passengers and parents with young children.

The bus operators are supportive of the introduction of bus lane and bus stop clearway enforcement, by the Council.

Most Common Contraventions

The most common contravention code is 34 for being in a bus lane. Other most repeated types of contravention are also shown below;

Operating Costs

The car parking trading account for 2023 - 2024 is as follows:

Penalty Charge Notices

A Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) may be issued for any vehicle parked in contravention of the parking and waiting restrictions. For 2022 - 2023 the values of a Penalty Charge Notice were either £70 or £50 depending on the severity of the contravention, discounted by 50% if paid within 14 days from the date of issue.

During the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 the Council issued 15,282 Penalty Charge Notices and from that number 2580 notices were cancelled as a result of informal challenges and formal representations.

The income generated from PCN’s for the same period was £420,905.28.

Observation Periods

Civil Enforcement Officers are given guidance on what the minimum length of observation time that vehicles must be given before a PCN can be issued. The electronic handset is set up such that the minimum period of time must elapse before it will issue a PCN. The observation periods are included in the Council’s Parking Enforcement Charter.

Mitigating Circumstances

Staff who deal with the appeals have a framework that provides guidance on how to deal with the various contraventions to ensure fairness and consistency and all appeals are considered on their own merits. A list of mitigating circumstances is included in the Councils Parking Enforcement Charter.

PCNs Issued per Area

A breakdown of the PCN issue in each area is as follows;

The 10 locations in South Tyneside where most TMA PCNs have been issued are;

1. Pierhead Car Park, South Shields
2. Pier Parade Car Park, South Shields
3. The Word Car Park, South Shields
4. South Promenade North Car Park, South Shields
5. South Promenade South Car Park, South Shields
6. Sea Road, South Shields
7. Prince Edward Road West, South Shields
8. Winchester Street Car Park, South Shields
9. Queen Street, South Shields
10. North Street Car Park, South Shields

Payments of PCNs

5090 bus lane and 5715 TMA payments were received;

Method of Payment

5090 Bus lane (BL) PCNs and 5715 TMA PCNs were paid using the following methods:

Correspondence

30,835 items of correspondence were dealt with in 2023 - 2024.

Appeals Process

If after a period of 28 days the amount owed remains outstanding the Council obtains the registered keeper’s details from the DVLA at Swansea and sends out a 'Notice to Owner' (NtO) to the registered keeper. Regardless of who was driving at the time it is the registered keeper who is responsible. The notice requests the registered keeper to either pay the outstanding amount or challenge the issue of the PCN. At this stage the opportunity to pay the discounted sum is no longer available.

If the Council and the registered keeper cannot agree then an appeal can be made by the appellant to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT), which is an adjudication service made up of qualified solicitors with a minimum 5 years experience in road traffic law. They are independent of the Council and arrive at decisions based on evidence placed before them. Appeals can be made in person at a tribunal, by post or via a telephone hearing using conferencing equipment.

Cancellations due to Appeal

All appeals must be made in writing detailing their mitigating circumstances. Because the Council adopt a firm but fair approach, appeals are considered on their own merits and inevitably there are a number of cancellations for various reasons. Approximately 16.88% of PCNs were cancelled due to an appeal being received, 0.90% were written off and 11.52% are still outstanding. It is important that the decisions which are made are consistent, supported by firm evidence, not only to assist the notice processing staff to arrive at the correct decision but also to confirm to the Council’s auditor that we are operating a fair, proportionate and consistent regime.

The most frequent reasons for cancellations are as follows:

PCNs Written Off

Recovery of Debts

If the registered keeper fails to pay the outstanding charge it will ultimately be referred to the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court and the outstanding charge is registered as a debt to the Council and thereafter bailiffs may be employed to recover the debt. In 2023 - 2024, 1815 warrants were issued from the 15,282 tickets issued.

The report provides statistical information on every authority outside of London that had adopted decriminalised parking enforcement, now called civil parking enforcement with effect from the 31 March 2008.

South Tyneside Council Appeals Statistics

The following table shows figures taken from the Councils involved in Civil Parking Enforcement (April 2023 to March 2024).

These figures are purely based on appeals made to the independent body known as the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT).

The above table shows figures provided by the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Of the 15,282 Penalty Charge Notices issued for parking contraventions in on-street, off-street and bus lane locations in South Tyneside during April 2023 to March 2024, 9 cases reached the point of appeal.

6 of these cases were refused by the adjudicator, finding in favour of the Council.

The TPT allowed 3 of the appeals, with the adjudicator deciding in favour of the appellant.

The Council do not have any appeals lodged with the TPT awaiting a decision.

The parking adjudicators for England and Wales recommends an Authority to publish in its annual report information relation to specific statistics. These follow in Appendix 1.

Statistical Information

TMA and bus lane statistical information for Year 2023 - 2024

Number of appeals lodged