BOSSES at a county council have agreed to take on responsibility for parking enforcement for the first time in the authority’s history after rising complaints about illegal and inconsiderate parking.

The move will allow officials from North Yorkshire County Council to fine drivers who flout on-street parking restrictions after public consultation showed almost 60 per cent of residents thought parking was a key problem in the county.

Major towns including Northallerton, Thirsk, Richmond and Leyburn were named as being particular hotspots for bad parking, with parents, shoppers and tourists identified as some of the worst culprits.

Under proposals agreed by the council’s executive, plans will be made to apply for civil parking enforcement (CPE), which would take responsibility for regulating on-street parking away from the police and hand it to the local highways authority by 2012/13.

CPE already operates in Harrogate and Scarborough but the council now wants to standardise its approach across the county after recognising that financial pressures on North Yorkshire Police mean that it cannot commit sufficient resources to enforce parking restrictions.

In a report to the executive, Gareth Dadd, executive member for highways, said that CPE would allow the highways authority to ‘influence driver behaviour by issuing penalty charge notices’ where motorists have been found to flout parking restrictions.

The report notes that although CPE should not be used as a way of raising revenue, the enforcement operation around the county will be paid for using revenue from penalty notices, with surplus funds ploughed into local transport and parking projects.

Speaking at the meeting Coun Dadd said: “Parking should not be seen in isolation and this strategy looks at the wider benefits this intends to bring for the local economy.

“We want to manage the highways network and manage parking as part of that network and we need to work with the district councils to make sure that off-street parking complements our strategy for on-street parking.”

Demand for parking is set to become more of an issue in future years, with figures showing that car ownership is expected to increase in North Yorkshire by more than 20 per cent by 2026.