A crackdown on rogue parkers will finally go live today – after being postponed because the number of motorists flouting the rules was so high.
Parking Enforcement officers have been patrolling in Inverness and Fort William since October 3..
But they during the first two weeks of the scheme they confined themselves to warning offenders rather than issuing fines.
Financial penalties were supposed to have been imposed from last Monday, but the local authority decided to hold off, as about 500 drivers in Inverness and another 200 in the Lochaber town had still received warnings.
And between Monday last week and yesterday evening, a total of 300 drivers were caught out in the Highland capital and another 100 were snared Fort William.
But Shane Manning, Highland Council’s principal traffic officer, said last night that the scheme would go live today – and anyone flouting the law will be punished.
Offenders will be liable to pay £30 if they stump-up within 14 days, or £60 if they wait for more than a fortnight.
It means that, despite the public being notified of the scheme in advance, total fines accrued from illegal parking last week could hypothetically have reached up to £24,000.
Mr Manning said: “We have not actually issued any fines yet because we felt that the number of warning notices being issued was still high at 700, and gave it another week.
“We had issued about 1,400-plus notices in the first week and it halved in the second week, and it had halved again in the third week, so we thought we should give everyone ample opportunity and from Monday this week we will start issuing fixed penalty charge notices.
“Things are changing and it’s been well publicised and there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about what will happen if they park illegally from now on.
“Unfortunately, there always will be people who choose to ignore parking regulations. We will see what happens this week and find out where we stand.”
The local authority has a team of 11 enforcement officers operating in the city and Fort William as part of a £550,000 plan to restore parking order to the streets.
Areas most affected by illegal parking were the centre of Inverness and the city’s Crown area and a number of streets to the west of the River Ness.
Money made from fines will be used by the local authority to offset the running of the service.
