There are calls for an 'army of parking wardens' to be hired to patrol Liverpool's suburbs.
Dangerous, illegal and selfish parking is an increasing problem in the city and one councillor says the council should hire many more enforcement officers and send them to suburban areas where things are getting out of control.
Cllr Richard Clein, who represents Cressington for the Liberal Democrats, made the comments after a council committee heard that the council currently employs just 47 parking enforcement officers, who also deal with various other matters including taxi licensing.
Read more: Liverpool's worst city centre parking issues according to drivers
In recent months the ECHO has been repeatedly reporting on dangerous pavement parking and other illegal parking around the city.
Cllr Clein said: "I’ve rarely seen a parking enforcement officer outside the city centre. How bad does the situation need to get before the council takes action?
“It needs action now because every councillor knows where the hotspots are in their wards and know that if the areas were blitzed the council would easily get enough money into the coffers to pay for the officers.
“The council needs to make a statement to motorists that parking illegally and blocking pavements won’t be tolerated because it is dangerous and discriminates against people with mobility problems, children, prams and shopping trollies.”
“There are so many examples where emergency vehicles would be unable to get down the road because of selfish parking.”
“In parts of the city, it’s becoming a matter of life and death.”
Responding to the comments, Labour's cabinet member for neighbourhoods, Cllr Abdul Qadir, said he is working on a new plan to increase the number of parking enforcement officers in the city - but said austerity and budget pressures have made this very difficult.
He said: “Since my very first day of taking up this cabinet position I’ve recognised the need to increase numbers of staff within Parking Services.
"To that end I’ve tasked officers with devising a long term, financially sustainable plan but due to crippling Government and coalition cuts of the past decade, this is not something we can waive a magic wand at.
"Also, there has been a recent spike in traffic across all major cities as lockdown ends and unfortunately this includes a spike in various types of inconsiderate behaviour by motorists. The city council is determined to work with our partners, such as Merseyside Police, to address this.“
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here.
