Basildon Council needs £528k to repaint its yellow lines (From Echo)

Basildon Council needs £528k to repaint its yellow lines

12:00pm Tuesday 17th April 2012 in Local News By Jon Austin

MOTORISTS could avoid parking tickets across Basildon because of the poor state of double yellow lines.

Basildon Council needs £528,000 to repaint road markings and maintain signs in all its restricted parking areas to ensure parking tickets can be issued – a survey found.

However only a small amount of the cash is available.

County Hall has agreed a subsidy of just £250,000 to be shared across seven local councils, which make up the South Essex Parking Partnership, meaning Basildon will only get a slice.

Malcolm Buckley, Basildon councillor responsible for environmental issues, said: “Under the partnership the parking control scheme is supposed to be self-funding, with money generated by fines paying for staff and this sort of maintenance.

“The county council will only subsidise it for the first few years, so financially it could worsen.”

Mr Buckley said Basildon was breaking even with the fines it dished out and therefore did not have the money to improve signs and repaint double yellow lines.

In December 2010 the Echo revealed traffic wardens were unable to fully enforce parking restrictions in 58 streets due to faded road markings or missing signs. It is believed, the majority of these have not been improved.

If a ticket is issued in such an area, the motorist has a good chance of a successful appeal, meaning the fine would be cancelled.

The issue is being raised at Basildon’s full council meeting this Thursday.

A report ahead of the meeting said: “The overview and scrutiny committee expressed concern at the disparity between the budget allocated for maintenance within the borough and the amount that had been identified for Basildon.”

The report said Mr Buckley wrote to Tracey Chapman, county council councillor responsible for highways, to see if more funding would be provided.

She replied saying no more money was available, but she was committed to “developing a planned approach”.

An Essex County Council spokesman said: “The council provides an annual maintenance budget for signs and lines, which is prioritised by the parking partnerships.”