Council comes under fire for 'misleading' parking sign

[caption id="attachment_110267" align="alignright" width="345"] BEFORE: The old sign states that on street parking is in operation from July 28 - but doesn't specify which year[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_110268" align="alignright" width="345"] AFTER: The new sign without a date[/caption]

When the council introduced on street parking charges on July 28 2014, it erected signs informing people that they were due to be implemented.
One of the signs, at Old Bath Road, tells motorists that charges are going to come into effect on July 28 – but doesn’t specify which year.
One disgruntled motorist says that keeping the sign up for six months after the charges were introduced has let people people park there in the belief that charges don’t come into effect until July 28 2015.
Glenn Renshaw claims he notified the council of the “misleading and unclear” signs in September 2014. However, this week the council said it could find no record of his complaint.
Mr Renshaw, who uses the road every day said: "People in Newbury will probably know that on street parking came in last year, but what about people coming in from outside the area?
"From my understanding, quite a few people have been booked. I think they (the council) should pay back anybody who was booked within that time as a result of the signage.
“Why did it take them until February 2015 to replace the sign?
"There have been many complaints about parking recently and it feels like the council is abusing its position."
Mr Renshaw put a picture of the sign on the NewburyToday forum last week and within 18 hours it was replaced.
A spokeswoman for the council, Peta Stoddart-Crompton, said: "There is no nefarious reason for a year not being shown.
"It was always the intention that the signs would remain in place after the introduction of the parking restrictions and be amended with all reference to the date being removed after about six months.
"The signs were not taken down, as they still serve as a warning of the parking restrictions in place.
“The reference to dates has however been removed from the signs. This was on our task list prior to the forum post so no, it wasn’t due to that.”
The council said it did not agree with Mr Renshaw's views that the signs were misleading or confusing to motorists and said it would not be compensating motorists who received a ticket.
However, it said all motorists had the right to appeal to the Independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
Speaking to the NWN in 2013, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transport, Melanie Purkiss, said: “The Department provides clear guidelines to councils to help them produce signs that comply with the regulations.”
“It is not for central Government to police council’s traffic signs – this rightly falls to elected local politicians who are accountable to their residents and communities.”
The council has come under fire recently after it was revealed that some of its parking bays were smaller than government guidelines.
Last week, the NWN also revealed that the council had not received hundreds of thousands of pounds owed to them in parking revenue from Parkway developer Standard Life Investments.