Unregistered cars acting as delivery vehicles for Oldham takeaways have been parking on double yellows, evading parking officers and ignoring penalty fines, bosses say. Cabinet member for neighbourhoods Councillor Hannah Roberts told a full council meeting that parking problems on Union Street in the town centre have increased alongside a rise in hot food takeaway and home delivery services.
The council is now exploring ways to restrict parking on the street - which is already marked with double yellow lines - as despite parking tickets being issued, some cars which are not registered to an owner have accrued 'considerable debt' which is going unpaid. The issue has been escalated to Greater Manchester Police, councillors were told.
The discussion came as a question from resident David Barker was read out by the Mayor Elaine Garry, in which he asked what was being done about the parking problems in the town centre which were often affecting the tram line. "As a resident who often travels on the Metrolink through the town centre in the evening, it is an all too frequent occurrence to have a tram brought to a halt on Union Street by a car stopped in the road obstructing the route of the tram," he stated.
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"With a high cluster of takeaway units on Union Street and George Street, and limited parking available, drivers using those premises often take to mounting kerbs or stopping in the middle of the road, completely ignoring road markings such as double yellow lines, and parking in an obstructive and often dangerous manner. Part of the problem seems to be a lack of patrolling by either police or traffic wardens, which effectively encourages irresponsible and illegal parking with drivers confident they will not be held to account.
"This a problem every day of the week and routinely causes problem for tram drivers and passengers travelling through the town centre." He added that councillors only needed to take a short walk from the council chamber to 'see the problem for themselves first-hand' and asked whether an effective solution could be found given it had been a 'recurring problem for years'.
In response, Coun Roberts said: "The parking problems on Union Street increased dramatically during the Covid pandemic and has become worse following the growth of hot food and take away home delivery services."Parking enforcement officers do patrol daily in order to see whether there are any illegally parked vehicles.
"The problem is the drivers move away when they see the traffic enforcement officers and then come back when they're gone. We are looking at options to change the nature of the town centre on Union Street to restrict the levels of parking currently being observed and we are exploring funding options for these works."
She added: "In addition we also know that part of the issue is the number of unregistered vehicles being used for these delivery services. Parking tickets have been issued, but they do not get paid and some now have considerable debt without a registered owner or address on the national DVLA system.
"This issue has been escalated to the Safer Roads Partnership at a Greater Manchester level and to Greater Manchester Police as these issues are also being seen more widely nationally and where possible, these vehicles are being removed from the road."
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