Plans for civil parking enforcement in Huntingdonshire are "long overdue", with work on-going to prevent on-street parking offences that continue to "blight" the district.

On-street parking offences are currently the responsibility of the police, but Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) has applied for civil parking enforcement, which will enable the district to ticket street parking infractions themselves.

The chair of Cambridgeshire County Council, Cllr Stephen Ferguson, said work was progressing and he believed civil parking enforcement "will be popular with the vast majority of residents when it arrives," but it was "long overdue".

He added: "I am optimistic it will solve the vast majority of anti-social parking behaviours that blight our towns and villages."

On Monday, July 18, Cambridgeshire Constabulary said on a social media post that special constabulary officers had issued 22 parking tickets in and around the Market Square and Brook Street in St Neots.

Illegal parking has been an ongoing issue in St Neots,

Cllr Ferguson, in a column written for The Hunts Post on February 7 this year said: "There has been persistent illegal parking around the edges of the Market Square for as long as I’ve lived here.

"Unfortunately, they will continue to park illegally until civil parking enforcement is introduced."

Illegal parking is not isolated to St Neots, but across the district too, with the chair of HDC, Cllr Michael Burke, commenting on the Cambridge Constabulary's social media post on parking in St Ives.

He said: "I've raised issues regarding illegal parking and dangerous parking in St Ives, and in an email, I was told tickets are issued by only two officers who cover the area and generally daytimes.

"Friday/Saturday evenings along The Waits and The Broadway are so dangerous with vehicles parked on double yellow lines and on the pavement, but this is ignored."

HDC produced and presented a draft Agency Agreement on March 17 to allow the progression of the decriminalisation of on-street parking offences in the district as part of its civil parking enforcement push.

The Agency Agreement has overall positive support, but there is still ongoing work from CCC to amend and refine it.

The original rollout for civil parking enforcement was to be in 2023, but CCC need to review each road to ensure they are in a position to allow enforcement.

Cllr Ferguson added: "This is an extensive piece of work, proving more time-consuming and complicated than they were expecting."