Spell of good weather leads to poor parking in Aberdour

Tory councillor Dave Dempsey said the problems are often caused by "folk who can't be bothered to walk a few yards" and, with backing from SNP councillor Sarah Neal, he's hoping a solution can be found.

The pair, who both represent the Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay ward, have submitted a motion and will seek the support of the South and West Fife area committee which meets tomorrow (Wednesday). 

Conservative councillor for Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay, Dave Dempsey. (Image: Fife Council)

Cllr Dempsey said: “We’re regularly told of two types of problem.

"One is vehicles parked on double yellow lines by folk who can’t be bothered to walk a few yards.

"The other, which particularly affects Aberdour on warm sunny days, is gridlock leading to cars being abandoned in locations that just make things worse.

“Some years back, parking enforcement was switched from the police to the council.

"That was the right move as the police don’t have the resources to deal with parking and those officers that were assigned were continually called away to other duties."

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He continued: "Fife Council does have dedicated parking attendants but they’re controlled centrally so it’s difficult to get them assigned away from the big towns at short notice.

“Because of the danger of unintended consequences, we’ve not prescribed a solution.

"Instead we’re asking that someone in the know looks at our idea and comes back with a report on the pros and cons. Doing nothing isn’t the answer. Hopefully this will give us a way forward."

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The motion, proposed by Cllr Dempsey and seconded by Cllr Neal, asks the committee to note: "the considerable disruption and inconvenience that arises locally from traffic levels at locations which are particularly popular in good weather; the annoyance caused to residents by continuing examples of anti-social parking; the difficulty under present arrangements of deploying parking attendants to diverse locations at short notice."

It asks the committee to consider that "decentralising elements of that deployment to area level has the potential to address these issues" and requests a report "laying out the pros and cons of various degrees of decentralisation to help determine what (if any) comments and recommendations" the committee might wish to submit to the council.