Parking boss unrepentant towards churchgoers
AN Inverness church is seeking a special dispensation after several worshippers were booked by the new seven-day parking enforcement officers.
While minister the Reverend John Beadle was saying “Let us pray,” traffic wardens outside were signalling “You will pay” as they slapped £60 parking fines on about eight cars.
The unholy row followed parking checks being carried out in Huntly Street outside the Methodist Church earlier this month.
He added: “It seems a bit heavy handed. We are hoping that for what would only be for 90 minutes or a couple of hours on a Sunday morning, we can have some form of amnesty.”
The fines will be reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days.
But parking supremo Shane Manning, the principal traffic officer for Highland Council, was unrepentant, and said there would be no special dispensation for churches or anyone else.
Rev Beadle said: “Our church stewards have had meetings with councillors Janet Campbell and Donnie Kerr to see if we can improve the situation of the parking in front of Huntly Street on Sundays. Lots of things go on at the church for the rest of the week, but it is only Sunday we are asking for.
“I understand the councillors were having a meeting with the traffic officers to see if we can reach some form of compromise position.
“We know the Catholic church further up Huntly Street has been having similar problems, but we are the only Methodist church for the whole of the Highlands and we have people coming from Skye and all sorts of places on Sundays.
“We had a congregation of about 100 for Remembrance Sunday but most Sundays it is about 70 which is quite a reasonable size and it is not as if we can send them somewhere else. Many people do walk to church. On occasion some of the Old High Church congregation park over at our church because of parking restrictions on their side of the river in Church Street.”
Cllr Campbell said she hoped a solution could be worked out.
“Other towns and cities in Scotland with seven-day parking enforcement start patrols after 12.30pm or 1pm,” she said. “Why does Inverness have to have all-day Sunday enforcement?
“The drivers at the Methodist Church who were booked were very upset about it because prior to this there was quite a bit of parking space on parking permit bays.”
Mr Manning said: “There will be no dispensation for worshippers anywhere in Inverness.
“However we have been in talks about the situation and we will be looking at the restrictions in some of the side streets around the church, and it may be that seven-day permit bays could be switched to six-day, freeing up some space.”
He said that the new council-run system was only weeks old and there was scope for looking at all restrictions and making sure they were “fit for purpose”.
The church parking furore comes amid local anecdotal reports that the new wardens are overzealous when going about their duties – including a painter and decorator’s van being given a ticket in the loading bay outside So CoCo in Inverness High Street despite there being a placard on the dashboard saying “Working in the Town House” across the road.
Mr Manning said: “Our aim is to help people. There have been complaints, but when you examine the CCTV evidence they do not stand up.
“Putting a message or phone number on the dashboard will not cut any ice with us. We have no way of knowing when the note was put on – the driver could be having a coffee in So CoCo for all we know – and the officers do not have time to phone drivers.”
He said they operate a system where tradesmen or delivery drivers needing access to premises can contact them by phone or email to make special parking arrangements.
This service is free in Highland whereas other local authorities charge for it.
The council took over parking enforcement from Police Scotland in October at a cost of £500,000 and moved to a seven-day operation which did away with the previous Sabbath free-for-all.
Parking bays have been set aside for a proposed city car club, where people can hire vehicles for varying lengths of time, but there has been concern about the location of some of the bays.
Mr Manning said that a decision on the scheme will be taken at a meeting of councillors on December 1, when objections will be heard. “Two providers [for the car club] are very, very keen to come into the city if we can provide enough bays, but it will depend on the outcome of the meeting whether it goes ahead or not,” he added.
