The Central Western Daily revealed in late December that Orange City Council was close to giving parking officers the green light to start booking those who had overstayed.

"As part of an initiative to ease the impact of the COVID pandemic, Orange City Council parking officers took a lenient approach last year to parking offences at the minor end of the scale, such as overstaying time limits," said council's communications officer Allan Reeder.

"Instead of infringement notices, warnings were issued.

"It was disappointing that some drivers didn't change their parking habits after receiving multiple warnings

"Our system of timed parking limits is all about sharing the available spaces fairly between the drivers who want to use them."

Mr Reeder said that "those drivers are now on notice that those warnings will come to an end from February".

In discussions with council, members of the business community had said there was a need "to see a steady turnover of parking spaces in front of their shops", he said.

"The plan is that the warning-only period will come to an end in the coming weeks.

"By the first of February it will be back to business-as-usual for the council parking officers."

During the leniency period parking officers were still booking motorists who parked "in potentially dangerous locations", Mr Reeder said.

Tickets were also given to motorists who parked in disabled spots without the relevant documentation.

One parking officer said that, on average, they had issued two such tickets a day during the grace period to people who had taken a spot reserved for someone with a disability. This was an increase on numbers from before the pandemic.

Parking on Summer Street was often unavailable during the lenient period.

Send us a letter to the editor using the form below ...