RESIDENTS are about to be consulted on plans to introduce a scheme hoped to massively improve Weston town centre's infuriating parking problems

RESIDENTS are about to be consulted on plans to introduce a scheme hoped to massively improve Weston town centre's infuriating parking problems.North Somerset Council says it wants to take over the responsibility of car parking from the police, who say until the authority do so, the problem will not go away.The council recently said it had put the scheme off while it reviewed the cost, but now says it will still be ploughing ahead with the project and will soon be consulting residents on the details of the scheme.The council plans to employ a team of parking attendants and introduce on-street parking charges. The council decided back in March 2005 that the scheme should be brought in. Weston sector police inspector Yan Georgiou says since the abolition of traffic wardens his staff simply do not have the resources needed to properly deal with car parking, and has urged the council to act as quickly as possible to start the decriminalised parking scheme. Insp Georgiou added: "Since we moved away from traffic wardens and introduced police community support officers (PCSOs) we have lost a dedicated resource dealing with parking issues."PCSOs deal with parking but they also deal with many other issues so the quality of parking enforcement obviously is not going to be as good. When we have issues like burglary and arson, sometimes that takes priority."Having worked in other areas when the local authorities take over it has been of huge benefit."The PCSOs are out there as much as possible dishing out tickets but they do it in amongst their other responsibilities.