BARROW is set to see a fresh blitz on problem parkers with double yellow lines getting a new lick of paint and anti-vandal parking signs being installed.

It follows reports that motorists are dodging parking tickets in residential areas because restrictions on some streets cannot be enforced.

Traffic wardens cannot issue penalty charge notices if the double yellow lines are in poor condition or parking signs have been vandalised or stolen, a meeting heard.

Barrow has the second-lowest rate for on-street parking tickets being issued in Cumbria. More than 3,600 tickets were given out during the last year – more than the year before.

But it is far lower than places such as Carlisle where over 12,000 were slapped on windscreens and South Lakeland where 5,243 were issued.

Cllr Anne Burns said residents were frustrated by problem parkers and regularly called the county council to demand action.

Cllr Burns said: “They can’t issue a ticket unless they’ve followed the proper procedure. This is about trying to get the proper procedure in place. Then we get a proper service and so do residents.

“In Hindpool, some people come into town, park up on the streets and don’t realise it’s a residential area. If we can get the proper lines and signs in place, it should get better.”

Cllr Ben Shirley said the new push would ‘make a huge difference’ and was a positive for residents.

Cllr Derek Gawne raised the problem of drivers parking on dropped kerbs and called for highways officials to draw up a record of streets which have them.

More focus is now going to be given on ticketing those who park on ‘dropped kerbs’ which makes it difficult for wheelchair users, mobility scooters and parents with pushchairs to get off pavements, the meeting heard.

Cllr Kevin Hamilton said some streets in Barrow are so narrow that motorists had little choice but to park on the kerb because the road would be obstructed.

Austin Shields, the county council’s parking services manager, said civil enforcement officers tried to take a ‘commonsense approach’ in such cases.

Kieran Tetchner, area highways manager for Barrow on the county council, said the district was the only area which had made a special case to be allocated in-house resources to tackle the problem of damaged lines and missing signs.