DRIVERS who park badly, or in the wrong places, could find themselves hit with fines as the council seeks to widen its area of parking fine enforcement.

West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) will be seeking new and extended Parking Orders for Witney in a meeting this week.

The council's environment overview and scrutiny committee will meet tomorrow to discuss the new plans.

WODC is seeking an agreement to renew its current Parking Order to include plots of land at Langdale Gate, Marriott’s Close and the Woolgate Centre car park.

This would enable officers to issue parking tickets at these locations as currently they do not have the authority to do so.

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The areas are currently monitored by enforcement officers during their regular patrols, but all they can do is advise drivers on better parking practice, and fines cannot be enforced.

The council hopes new enforcement abilities would deter problem parking to protect pedestrian and motorist safety, ensure traffic flows freely on the highway and that short term parking is readily available for drivers.

A spokesperson for West Oxfordshire District Council said: “The council wishes to widen the area enforceable under the Parking Order to enable effective enforcement where unauthorised parking currently causes problems such as traffic flow, obstruction and users staying over the maximum parking time.”

The parking area at Langdale Hall - Witney Town Council’s largest hall - is part owned by WODC and part by Witney Town Council and refers to the small area adjacent to the Shop Mobility unit.

Double yellow lines and signs are currently in place but largely ignored, the council said.

Drivers are aware that the council is unable to enforce fines as the area is not currently covered by a Parking Order, the council claimed.

Oxford Mail:

WODC is hoping to enter into a lease with Witney Town Council for the land at Langdale Gate.

Sharon Groth, town clerk at Witney Town Council, said: “The careless parking of vehicles in the car park and particularly so close to the entrance and junction reduces visibility and access and poses a serious hazard.

“Vehicles parked in this area create an obstruction for deliveries to the service yard of three major retailers and make large vehicle manoeuvres difficult and dangerous.

“It also place users of the hall car park and other pedestrians at risk.”

A section of the shopping centre at Woolgate car park is not covered by the current parking order and drivers currently stay longer than the allotted parking time, reducing the availability of parking for other shoppers.

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Marriott’s Close is the access road leading to Marriott’s Walk multi storey car park. Cars stopping in the area cause a significant obstruction which blocks access to or from the car park, causing disruption to motorists.

The current Parking Order - which was created in 2007 - regulates the majority of car parks owned and managed by WODC, however to add additional areas the Parking Order will need to be renewed.

If approved, the changes will take a minimum of three months to put in place and cost £1,500 - to be covered by existing WODC parking budgets.