WEST LOTHIAN: Officer runs out of illegal parking tickets after issuing so many
PC Ewan Hannay told a meeting of Livingston North Local Area Committee
A police officer enforcing a crackdown on illegal parking in West Lothian admitted he issued so many tickets he ran out – and had to get a replacement book.
West Lothian police had promised to crack down on selfish parking in the county – and this week officers took the blitz to the doors of the council’s Livingston HQ.
PC Ewan Hannay told a meeting of Livingston North Local Area Committee – held on Friday morning in the Civic Centre council chambers – that: “We have been out the front issuing tickets already.”
Councillor Alison Adamson then asked PC Ewan Hannay if he replaced the book of tickets he’d emptied. He assured that he had.
Councillor Adamson explained: “PC Hannay is one of the officers going around ticketing people for parking in places where they shouldn’t be and there came a point where he had run out of tickets because there were so many.”
She asked: “Will there be a continuation of the ad hoc patrols and the chasing up of illegal parking especially in the disabled bays and around the schools. Is this an ongoing situation. Are you on top of it?”
Constable Hannay replied: “It’s an ongoing thing. If and when we have the time we target this particularly.
“This week alone we have issued ten tickets out front of the Civic Centre for parking on double yellow lines or with disabled bays without a badge.”
The Civic Centre, which also houses Livingston Police Station has few actual public parking spaces. There is a large staff car park at the rear. The building also serves the courts complex as well as police and council offices.
Councillors first brought up the issues of abuse of blue badge bay parking last year after Eliburn Community Council paid for the installation of a disabled parking space in a shopping area in northern Livingston.
It was quickly ignored by motorists and delivery drivers alike, which prompted complaints and the start of a police crackdown on illegal parking in the ward. As in all wards such parking patrols are resource led with officers committed to greater priorities. Community officers – essentially the police on the beat in wards- are often seconded to other operational matters.
Constable Hannay told the local area committee that officers would issue tickets wherever illegal parking was discovered.
And he warned motorists that hotspots – including on roads around schools in the ward- were covered regularly.