Comment

THE parking free-for-all in Ceredigion is at an end - and not a moment too soon.

Traffic wardens - or civil parking enforcement officers as they are now known - are back patrolling our streets, keeping them free of congestion.

It is not overstating the case to say that there has been chaos over the last 12 months, as selfish drivers took advantage of the lack of wardens to park illegally, and sometimes dangerously.

Vehicles were parked all day in restricted spaces but, even worse, drivers parked on dou-ble yellow lines, over disabled access points, on pavements, at corners and on junctions.

Delivery drivers found it impossible to pull up to go about their business, and buses and lorries were regularly unable to manoeuvre at corners and junctions. And if you just wanted to pull up in town for 10 minutes to go to the bank or a doctor’s appointment, you had no chance.

The Cambrian News has been publishing its ‘Streets of Shame’ page almost weekly, exposing those drivers who flagrantly took advantage.

Unlike other media, we did not shy away from the controversial and we took the bold move of revealing the numberplates of those at fault.

Now that the job of parking enforcement has been decriminalised and taken over by the county council, there will be more wardens patrolling our county and, for the first time, there will be patrols in the evenings and on Sundays.

The last year has been an interesting “experiment”, if only because it has shown the majority of residents that wardens are in fact a “necessary evil”.Without people to enforce laws, it has become clear that anarchy will rule.