FROM the beginning of July Wigan Council will take over responsibility for enforcing all existing parking regulations from traffic wardens and the police.

Council chiefs say reducing the number of illegally parked vehicles will benefit everyone through improved road and pavement safety.

Peter Taylor, the Council director of engineering services explained: "Over the past couple of years we've had an increasing number of requests

from residents and businesses to do something about improving enforcement as bad parking is causing serious problems.

"It's a problem which is going to get worse rather than better unless we do something to try and tackle it."

Mr Taylor stressed that the new scheme was not a money-making exercise and there were no incentives of any sort relating to the number of tickets issued for either the parking attendants or the management company which will operate the system.

He said: "The new scheme must be self-financing, so money raised from payments has to be used to operate it on a daily basis. But one of the most important changes is that instead of money disappearing into the Treasury as it did before, any surplus after operational costs will now stay here in our own borough and be used to benefit our own population.

"Responsible drivers who comply with the parking restrictions will not receive a penalty charge notice. Those who don't will face a higher risk of getting one."

From 1 July police and traffic wardens will no longer issue Fixed Penalty Notices for parking offences, all enforcement will be done by parking attendants. The penalty charge will be set at £60 which reduces to £30 if paid within 14 days.

No new parking restrictions have been introduced.

Misuse of a Blue Badge (disabled badge) will remain a criminal offence and the police will still issue Fixed Penalty Notices to vehicles causing obstruction - or arrange for them to be removed.

At present 14 parking attendants are employed by the Council; from July there will be 25 on duty throughout the borough. The Council has appointed a specialist company, Vinci Park Services to recruit, train and manage the parking attendants on its behalf.