SCARBOROUGH Council does not have the legal right to set debt collectors on motorists who do not pay on-street parking fines, according to the Department for Transport.
However, the council has defended its policy.
The town's on-street parking scheme has been in place since 2000 and people who have not paid fines for flouting the rules have been chased by debt collectors and threatened with a county court judgmen
t.
But it has now emerged that Scarborough Council never applied to the Government to decriminalise parking offences in the area, which means it cannot chase through the civil courts people who do not pay fines.
The authority's cabinet was today being asked to give officers the go-ahead to apply for decriminalised parking enforcement powers – four years after the scheme was introduced.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "As the law stands at the moment, it is not possible to have civil enforcement if parking in the area has not been decriminalised. They should be pursued through the criminal courts."
Until parking offences are decriminalised, all on-street parking offences in the area remain criminal offences and should be chased through a magistrates' court.
While most of the motorists in the Scarborough area have paid their parking fines before the council takes further action, those who do not are sent a letter by a debt collection agency.
It says: "Bailiffs may be instructed to recover assets to discharge the outstanding debt.
Judgment debts are registered by the county court. A judgment debt against you would seriously affect your ability to obtain credit in the future."
Scarborough Council has admitted it chases any debts through county courts, which it says has accepted jurisdiction, but will now take the cases to magistrates' court until it gets decriminalised powers.
Chief executive John Trebble said: "For those appealing against an excess charge it avoided the possible stigma of a criminal conviction which would be in addition to being ordered by the magistrates to make payment of both the charge and costs of pursuing that type of prosecution.
"The council regularly reviews its parking schemes and following a recent audit has examined the options available to it to enforce, in particular to try to reduce the persistent abuse of parking restrictions.
"Following consultation with other local authorities officers have decided that in future offenders should be prosecuted to conviction in addition to seeking repayment of the due charge."
