PENDLE Council is set to back plans to get tough on illegal parking when it takes over from police traffic wardens next year.

The Nelson Committee, which meets tonight, is expected to welcome a scheme to create a partnership with Lancashire County Council to look at the decriminalisation of parking, which has already happened in some parts of the country and will be taking place throughout the county next July.

The move means the responsibility for enforcing on-street parking restrictions moves from the police traffic wardens - although there have been none on patrol in Nelson for some time - to local authority parking attendants.

It also means that those not paying their fines will be dealt with in civil proceedings at the county court, rather than criminal proceedings in the magistrates court.

Fines would be set at £60, with a 50 per cent discount if paid within 5 days and further penalties for late payment at the level recommended by the Department for Transport. The current fine is £30.

There would be around 12 parking attendants patrolling the streets of Nelson booking any motorists caught flouting parking restrictions.

The council will consider extending residents-only parking schemes near the town centre six months into the decriminalised system to relieve the expected extra pressure.

Police in the county now employ around 115 wardens to enforce traffic regulations along with officers, with fines going to central government funds. The wardens will need to be redeployed to other duties.

In 1998-99, 79,746 fixed penalty tickets were handed out to motorists across Lancashire, falling to 71,956 in 1999-2000.

Under the new system, which could include more wardens being employed, the county council would receive the money from fines which would then go into a pot from which the borough council could bid. All the money would be used for traffic-related schemes.