The university towns and seaside resort area of Ceredigion has not had traffic wardens since the beginning of June as Dyfed-Powys Police made the three wardens redundant starting a free for all for parking. There have been reports of irate motorists and altercations. The yellow lines go ignored and cars are being double parked causing complaints that the vacuum is being taken advantage of by motorists.
Disabled bays are being filled by those that are able bodied and lorry drivers are even parking along pavements. The jobs were lost by the wardens when the law changed handing over parking control to the Ceredigion County Council. But not until spring will the council begin to enjoy these parking powers that have been proven to generate money in over 300 local authorities.
The town’s chairman of the chamber of commerce, Chris Mackenzie-Grieve said, it is not good, to be honest. While for some it has been good, it has impacted business. It is becoming more difficult for deliveries since there is no where to park. Control is trying to be maintained but that is not always easy. Even though it may feel like bliss, it isn’t and there needs to be rules to follow to prevent people from doing stupid things.
The Ceredigion council requested a local chief constable to have police support officers help fill the void but had been turned down. Many who once thought parking wardens were their enemy are now seeing them as their guardian angles and peace makers and it just shows that drivers are not hateful of regulations they just want everyone to be treated fairly and the regulations applied equally to all.
