ILLEGAL parking will soon become a thing of the past in Swindon after councillors decided to take the matter out of police hands.

The idea has been discussed for nearly a year and a study was commissioned in May to look into the feasibility of Swindon Council running the service.

Now that has been completed and after a meeting of the council's transport, environment and neighbourhood services commission, it was decided to press ahead with the move to implement it within 18 months.

The council will now apply to the Secretary of State for powers, under the Road Traffic Act 1991, to take over responsibility for parking enforcement from Wiltshire Constabulary.

The move has taken place partly because the police cannot afford to employ enough traffic wardens in Swindon. It has long had just one warden covering the whole borough, as revealed in the Advertiser last December, although last month a second warden was added to the streets.

But still they have their work cut out as motorists have been taking advantage of the lapse in the service.

Double yellow lines have been blatantly ignored all over the town and the council has become increasingly concerned.

Another reason for taking over the service is that, under Government legislation, councils that operate parking enforcement can keep the fines and make money, unlike police forces, which have to hand the cash back to the Government.

The council will now set up a steering group of officers to oversee the project and implement the changeover.

The group must first work out a range of options for how the council could manage the service.

Coun Gunter Gussefeld (Con, Dorcan), who sits on the commission, said: "It was felt that the review should be done first so that we know what sort of service we are going to provide and how much that might cost to start up before we allocate any money from the reserves."

They must report back to the commission on whether it would be best for a private company to run the service on the council's behalf or for it to be kept in-house, or some arrangement between the two.

The commission decided last Thursday that such a review should be completed before the council commits any funding to the project.

It had been suggested by officers that it would cost £660,000 to finance the scheme, which would take up to five years to recoup. It is hoped that the service would then start making around £233,000 a year for the council.

Councillor Gunter Gussefeld (Con, Dorcan), who sits on the commission, said: "It was felt that the review should be done first so that we know what sort of service we are going to provide and how much that might cost to start up before we allocate any money from the reserves.

"With the council's financial situation we've got to be very careful with our money and while it's a scheme everyone is keen to get going, we don't want to commit more than is necessary to this."

The council currently has 25 traffic wardens enforcing parking regulations in residents' parking zones and council car parks.