THOUSANDS of parking tickets were issued in Caerphilly last year despite the council struggling to hire enough wardens.
Recruitment for the civil parking enforcement officer role has reportedly been hit by frequent problems because of the “challenging” nature of the job.
Those challenges could include bad weather and “difficult members of the public”, a Caerphilly County Borough Council scrutiny committee was told.
Wardens issued 10,858 penalty charge notices across the county borough in the last financial year.
Drivers faced tickets for offences such as breaching waiting restrictions, overstaying, failing to display a valid parking ticket or residents’ permit, and parking in loading bays.
Cllr Nigel George, the cabinet member for highways, said the council’s civil parking enforcement policy has been “broadly successful”, with “proactive” enforcement.
A council report shows a “slight shortfall in the complement of staff” last year, due to “difficulties” in filling vacancies.
Committee member Cllr Judith Pritchard asked whether the local authority had hired enough enforcement officers.
“I feel possibly we need more,” she said.
Dean Smith, the council’s traffic management and road safety manager, said an independent consultant had recommended the council maintain a team of eight wardens “based on quite a clever process”.
He told the committee there was “quite a high turnover of staff”, however, and the council had carried out 30 separate recruitment processes since July 2021.
“We are never really running at full capacity,” Mr Smith said, adding that wasn’t “through a lack of trying”.
Cllr Donna Cushing asked why there was “such a high turnover” of staff.
“It’s a very challenging job, working in all weathers,” replied Mr Smith, adding that wardens could be “subjected to quite a lot of difficult members of the public”.
“People don’t generally thank you for issuing them a penalty charge notice,” he explained.
Cllr D. Tudor Davies told the meeting he had argued previously that eight wardens were not enough.
“I think we are suffering for that,” he said.
Cllr Adrian Hussey, meanwhile, asked whether the council was looking at increasing parking prices in its car parks, noting the report mentioned a drop in ticket sales last year.
Mr Smith said there was “certainly scope to review” parking prices, but Cllr Bob Owen warned that could be counter-productive and “drive more people away” from council car parks.
The committee also heard the council could start using a camera car for parking offences “towards the early part of the next financial year”.
