CCTV teaches a lesson to careless parents outside schools

20 August 2009

The adoption of CCTV enforcement as a tactic to clamp down on dangerous parking outside schools has been deemed a success by Medway Council.

The local authority introduced the initiative in March 2008 and has received praise from schools and emergency services, as the move has proven to be an effective deterrent to irresponsible parking by parents at the start and end of the school day.

Medway was the first council to introduce the scheme outside London. Rubena Hafizi, the council’s parking manager, said introducing the technology was a huge learning curve, but one that had paid off.

‘We now know for sure that CCTV has a very important role to play in parking enforcement. It’s not only a very visible deterrent for irresponsible drivers, it also complements and is fully compatible with our other enforcement practices.

‘It has greatly increased our enforcement capabilities around school gates at particular times of the day, while also giving us the flexibility to address other areas of enforcement which can minimise avoidable disruption and congestion in town centres.’

The council issues 50,000 penalty charge notices a year through its team of 21 civil enforcement officers, supported by a 10-strong team of back-office processing staff. The council has recently extended its mobile CCTV fleet with the introduction of another Smart car.

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