COUNCILLORS are stalling on applying extra powers to punish parking pests in the Borders.

A report to be considered by members of the local authority's executive next week is pushing for a package of measures to ease the pressure on congested town centres.

But the working group - which was re-established 18 months ago - has concluded that full-scale decriminalisation, allowing council-employed traffic wardens to return to the streets, isn't the way forward.

Wardens were pulled from Borders towns in 2014 by Police Scotland as a cost-cutting measure.

In the year leading up to the cut and twice since, Scottish Borders Council has considered following 20 other Scottish local authorities by introducing decriminalisation.

But, yet again, a fear that cost will outweigh income is proving to be a deterrent.

A spokesman said: "For those councils which have brought in decriminalisation parking enforcement, many report successful implementation.

"The large urban authorities have the greatest success, with a smaller geographic area to cover, larger population and current off- and on-street parking charge regimes.

"The advantages to such schemes are that enforcement is under council control and means attendants can be directed to priority areas when required; congestion is removed; the network is well managed and safer; and income is retained.

"Set against this is the permanent obligation on the council to continue with enforcement – there is no opportunity to reverse the process once an Order is made; the risk that over time income does not meet

all costs; the need to charge for some parking or subsidise the scheme; and parking charges are unlikely to be popular."

The seven-strong working group, which is chaired by Selkirk councillor Gordon Edgar, is recommending a Traffic Regulation Order review process for simplifying and regimenting waiting restriction across all Border towns in a bid to end problem parking.

They also want to update yellow and white line marking, introduce new signage, launch a media campaign and carry out further studies to complement the Traffic Regulation Order review.

Councillor Edgar stated: "In the course of this review, we have examined the extent of parking restrictions and availability in Border towns, the position on enforcement including the potential for decriminalised parking enforcement, and options for the future.

"This examination has allowed us to take account of many different views and also provided us with an insight into wider parking behaviours in the Borders."

In the final year before traffic wardens were pulled from the street in 2014 they issued a total of 1102 parking tickets and 613 vehicle excise tickets.

Following Scottish Borders Council's funding of the Community Action Team (CAT) last April, they issued 632 tickets in a nine-month period - with the police issuing a further 324 during the same period.

It is expected that the CAT officers will continue to target parking issues along with Police Scotland.

Members of Scottish Borders Council's executive committee will consider the working group report on Tuesday.