County Council improves parking restriction waiver process

Shropshire County Council has made it easier for motorists to get exemptions from parking regulations, so that they can park in restricted areas whilst carrying out essential activities on or near the road.

Waivers can now be obtained in advance, from a greater number of places. These include the council’s divisional offices, their customer service centre and parking attendants.

A waiver can be issued to anyone who needs to park on a restriction on the road to carry out an activity such as moving furniture or building maintenance. Once issued, a waiver will allow the motorist to be exempt from the parking restrictions in the area authorised for a specified time.

The council have introduced three types of waiver that can be issued to suit different requirements. These are:

• Waivers to allow motorists to park on double yellow lines, single yellow lines and loading bays during the hours of the restriction.
• Waivers to allow motorists to park in limited waiting, pay and display and residents parking bays for longer than the maximum time limit
• Waivers to allow property owners, who have a parking restriction out side their homes, to park close to their property whilst carrying out certain activities during the hours of the restriction.

All applications for waivers will need to show evidence of ‘need’ and the vehicle to which the waiver is issued must not create an obstruction or reduce safety whilst parked on the road.

Ron Buzzacott, Shropshire County Council’s traffic manager, said: “We introduced a system for issuing waivers when the new parking enforcement started last year, however following discussions with traders and residents we have found that we needed to make the waivers easier to obtain and use.

“We hope that these changes and the greater availability of waivers will help residents and motorists to carry out essential activities as easily as possible.”

People can find out more about waivers and how to obtain them by contacting the council’s customer service centre on 0845 678 9018.

10 January 2008