Camera-mounted vans will soon take to the streets of Aberdeen in a digital-age crackdown on rogue parking.
Council chiefs have unveiled a new armada of 21st-century vehicles as they look to technology to widen the net, as part of a £1.3 million parking overhaul.
Community safety and city warden manager Mark Wilson tells The Press and Journal: “We’re trying to get people to stick to the rules they should already be following in the first place.
“Compliance is key. That’s why we have the enforcement service.”
This, he hopes, will stop people “causing havoc” by “parking on double yellow lines or having trucks loading in the wrong areas”.
In an exclusive interview, Mr Wilson tells us:
- How city wardens are being kitted out with new mopeds to zoom off and check on any illicit parkers flagged by the van
- That this initiative will free up these public servants to deal with other issues, like fly-tipping
- And how the cameras on these new vans will scan number plates in a bid to terminate rogue parking
How will Aberdeen ANPR parking enforcement work?
In coming months, the two electric vans, rigged up with cameras, will be driven around Aberdeen by city wardens.
Their roof-mounted automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras will run the registrations of vehicles parked in controlled parking zones.
Licence plates will be checked against the new online parking permit system, as well as the various ways of paying for on-street parking in the city.
And if the ANPR vans spot that a driver has not paid or there’s a vehicle parked on double yellow lines, the council’s electric peloton will be called in.
How will wardens on e-bikes form part of the crackdown?
There are 12 new brilliant white Eskuta e-bikes, with Aberdeen City Council livery, in the pack.
Eskuta, a Midlands electric moped manufacturer, lists them for sale at more than £2,000 a piece.
But council chiefs won’t say if they paid ticket price for the fleet, due to commercial sensitivity.
The e-bikes will be ridden by city wardens to go and check any vehicles the camera system flags.
Locations will be sent to the wardens’ ANPR-equipped handsets, which can be mounted on the handlebars.
Why new vans will come as part of efforts to boost city patrols
Mr Wilson tells us it’s not the rise of machines and city wardens will still be at the heart of the operation.
“There’s nothing more to the automation,” he says.
“It’s not going to be a case of a van going down the street and just issuing tickets.
“It’s still going to require the warden… ‘intelligence-led enforcement’ is the term we’ve gone with.
“We’re still doing what we are doing now, it’s just going to be much more efficient.”
Along with all the factory-fresh kit, the council is bolstering its warden team.
The local authority will soon be hiring for seven full-time roles, taking their staffing back up from 25 to a full complement.
Bosses let the vacancies stack up to hire in number at once, as the application “involves roleplay and things like that,” Mr Wilson mentions.
Where will the Aberdeen parking camera vans patrol?
Patrols with the Aberdeen parking ANPR camera vans are not expected to begin immediately.
However, you might see them out on the streets, as the final preparations are put in place.
Wardens will be driving them around Aberdeen to help the software map out where people can and cannot park.
But when it’s all systems go, one van is expected to roll around Aberdeen city centre while the other heads to controlled parking zones further out.
And a platoon of four or five e-bikes is expected to be paired alongside each ANPR camera van.
The finer detail of exactly how the city will be split up for patrols is still being ironed out.
If it’s not Big Brother, why are Aberdeen City Council doing this?
It’s all in the name of efficiency and freeing up city wardens to do more, says Mr Wilson.
“If you think about how long it takes a city warden to walk down the full length of Crown Street for example; down one side, and up the other checking all the vehicles manually.
“We’ll be able to drive down, scan a car in a bay – ‘that one has a permit, ‘that used cashless parking’ – until we find a vehicle without valid parking rights assigned to it.
“That will create a job which will go to one of the wardens on the Eskuta.
“And they will veer off to that location to assess the situation themselves, whether or not it’s in contradiction and whether or not they should start the process of issuing a parking ticket.”
What might wardens do with all this extra time?
Mr Wilson is not the authoritarian you might expect to find heading up a team dishing out penalty charge notices.
He’s rushed back from his holiday at Alton Towers to excitedly take delivery of the shiny new e-bikes.
And he’s equally keen on what the wardens will do with all the time they are freeing up.
“This will be far more efficient and gives us greater scope for city wardens to focus on some of their other remits, such as fly tipping, littering, dog fouling, antisocial behaviour.
“So that’s a big draw for us to be able to get this level of efficiency, to do more as a service and support communities.”
What will you see when the Aberdeen parking camera vans are out?
The parking camera vans will crawl streets at around 25mph – for the ANPR to work optimally – checking registrations against a list of all paid-up vehicles.
Aberdeen City Council‘s list will include all parking permit holders, those who have paid with a cashless service, or anyone who has put money in the new-look solar-powered meters being installed around Aberdeen.
The appearance of these ANPR camera vans coincides with the digitisation of the council parking permit system this week.
From Monday, it’s thought around 80% of applicants will have access to their permits online.
Change is coming with the solar-powered meters too, with many new models to be installed by the end of the year.
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