In a determined effort to tackle the issue of people who persistently evade parking tickets in the city, officers from Portsmouth City Council undertook an operation on Thursday 17 August which led to the successful removal of multiple vehicles that were repeatedly flouting parking regulations.
This operation, spearheaded by the city’s traffic management department, was targeted at vehicles with unpaid Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) that have disregarded legal parking rules.
A persistent evader is identified as someone with three or more unpaid PCNs that have passed the appeal stage. These vehicles can make it harder for people to park near their homes, and those that have shown a consistent pattern of illegal parking can disrupt the orderly flow of traffic in the city.
The Department for Transport’s statutory guidelines for local authorities say that when a persistent evader’s vehicle is in contravention it should be subject to the strongest possible enforcement following the issue of a PCN.
During the day and evening of the operation, a substantial effort was directed towards residential parking zones (RPZs) where a concentration of persistent evaders had been noticed. The operation yielded good results, with eight vehicles removed from various RPZs across the city. Officers also removed five untaxed vehicles that were discovered during the operation.
Commenting on the operation Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Cabinet Member for Transport, stated, “The results of this operation demonstrate our commitment to maintaining order on our streets and upholding parking regulations. People who persistently evade parking tickets make it much harder for people to park near their homes, so I’m pleased to see this operation sending a message that we won’t just let these things go.”