Cars parked on the double yellow lines in Lombard Street and St Helen’s Court have been getting leaflets ‘Observe the lines, avoid the fines’.

From November 1st, Oxfordshire County Council are taking on responsibility, from the police, for parking enforcement.

The County  Council have appointed a contractor to employ the existing residents traffic wardens and new wardens. They will get a full training course and will be looking for vehicles wrongly parked in the following situations:
* Residents parking
* On-street pay and display parking
* Double and single yellow lines
* Limited waiting bays
* Loading bays
* Zig-zag markings at schools (if restrictions apply)
* Pedestrian crossings
* Double parking (parking too far from the kerb)
* Blue Badge bays
* Taxi ranks
* Parking in bus lanes and stops
* Parking across dropped kerbs where there’s a crossing point, with or without tactile paving

The full details are at
https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/roads-and-transport/parking/new-parking-enforcement-areas

Last Friday a lorry was left for five hours blocking the pavement on the double yellow line next to the Vineyard Almshouses. Jenny sent me an email at the time saying it was ‘… severely restricting access on the pavement. Two properties are not able to gain full access out onto the pavement from their own front doors. Children on their way to school and people with pushchairs and shopping trolleys have to either cross the road or walk into the traffic to get round it. The police say it is a council responsibility, and the council says it is a police responsibility.’

It was the police, who often had higher priorities. From November 1st it will be a council responsibility.

People will be waking up after Halloween to a Halloween parking ticket. I say that because I have been twice caught out by parking changes on October 31st. I hope it won’t be a 3rd.