A new on-street parking fines system could hit the streets of Angus in the spring.
Town centre parking has been a major issue since the Police Scotland withdrawal of traffic wardens from Angus towns in February 2014.
It has since been claimed the situation has descended into a free-for-all as drivers ignore waiting restrictions ranging from half-hour maximum stays to double yellow lines.
Last year, councillors agreed to press ahead with a scheme for decriminalised parking enforcement (DPE) which would give council staff such as community wardens the authority to issue £60 fines.
Communities committee members will hear on Tuesday that the programme remains on track to be in place by next April.
The council has completed a number of key steps, including a draft DPE application to Transport Scotland.
In his report to councillors, head of technical and property services Ian Cochrane states: “The effectiveness of DPE requires the enforcement process to be robust with all waiting restrictions clearly marked, associated signage checked to ensure consistency with one another and compliance with regulations, associated traffic regulation orders to be correct and everything is legally enforceable.
“Penalty Charge Notices (PCN’s) will be issued by council staff to drivers disobeying the parking regulations.”
A survey of all on-street waiting restrictions has been carried out but the authority has said that the proposals will not change or vary the location or extent of any existing parking or waiting restrictions or permitted parking areas.
Mr Cochrane adds: “The introduction of DPE will assist with traffic management in Angus towns to encourage free flow of traffic, improve road safety especially for pedestrians and vulnerable groups, improve servicing for local shops, as well as assisting to promote the economic viability of town centres with increased parking turn-over.
Set-up costs are being met from £130,000 set aside in this year’s budget for the scheme, but parking fines will not be processed by the authority itself due to the cost of dealing with what the council believes will be a “relatively low” penalty tally.
The report adds: “The financial model used to establish the possible outcomes of a range of DPE delivery options demonstrated that it would be more cost efficient for Angus Council to use the services of an external processing service provider for back office services, rather than utilise all services in-house, principally due to the predicted relatively low issue number of Penalty Charge Notices
