IT IS becoming increasingly difficult for police to crack down on illegal parking in Newport and across Gwent while also tackling more serious crime, a senior officer has said.

Gwent Police has said it will stop enforcing illegal parking in April next year in an effort to direct resources elsewhere. As a result Newport City Council is considering introducing decriminalised parking, through which responsibility for penalising drivers flouting on-street road restrictions or parking on double yellow lines is taken over by the authority.

Gwent Police chief inspector Mike Richards and inspector John Davies appeared before a meeting of Newport City Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee to discuss the issue today.

Chief Supt Richards said: “The demands on the police service, not just Gwent Police, is very different to how it was five or 10 years ago.

“In the last few years we’ve had to direct resources into the biggest drugs operation the force has ever had.

“And we have to balance that with issues of parking.”

Caerleon ward member Cllr Jason Hughes said he was concerned about the potential impact of police stopping enforcing the issue in his ward, where illegal parking is already a significant problem.

“In Caerleon we are in a situation where, there is no other way of putting it, it’s absolute carnage,” he said.

“Yesterday there were 12 or 13 cars parking on zebra crossing and zig zags.”

Chief Insp Richards replied: “I can't promise we will have resources in Caerleon every day, but we will try and get that balance right.”

He added, although Gwent Police had set a final cut-off date of December 2019 when it says all parking responsibilities should be fully handed over to local authorities, officers would not “walk away” from enforcement.

“We are not going to walk away until your plans are fully in place,” he said.

“We might not always get the balance right and we might not satisfy everybody, but we will try.

“There are certainly other priorities but we won’t turn a blind eye to illegal parking.”

And Insp Davies said the handover would allow police and council officers to work together to improve the overall image of the city centre.

“It will allow us to take resources for the areas of perception such as anti-social behaviour and street drinking,” he said. “If we take that small part away that the council can deal with it will leave us to deal with criminals and people who make people’s lives a misery.”

The council has said the plan will cost taxpayers £1.39 million to set up, and £588,000 a year to run. And, speaking at the meeting, leader of the council’s Conservative group Cllr Matthew Evans said he was particularly concerned to see replacing road signs would cost as much as £800,000, calling this a “monstrous sum”.

Although the council will make a £19,600 loss on the scheme in its first year, it would make a predicted annual profit of almost £22,300 from the second year.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend the plan should be taken forward.