Traffic wardens could be a thing of the past if City of York Council takes control of illegal parking on yellow lines from police.

Councillors will meet on Thursday to decide if they will apply to the Secretary of State for the responsibility under new laws.

The change would allow the police to concentrate on fighting crime and disorder while allowing the council greater power to tackle congestion by clamping down on illegal parking on city streets.

Traffic wardens are currently part of the police force. They would be replaced by council patrols already responsible for car parks and residents' parking.

Standard fines would be proposed as £40, double the amount imposed by the police.

Coun Dave Merrett, chairman of the planning and transport committee, Dave Merrett said: "It will be important that we run the service in a customer-friendly way, building on our experience of successfully administering residents' parking schemes.

"We would tackle the aspects that residents are most concerned about, such as illegal parking or loading on key routes where this leads to traffic congestion and safety near school entrances."

Fines paid by illegal parkers would go towards paying for the patrols. No extra costs are expected to fall on tax payers.

Peter Evely, head of highways regulation with City of York Council, said existing traffic wardens would be re-deployed to other police duties such as traffic management, or transferred to the local authority. A decision is yet to be made.

If a bid is made and accepted by the Secretary of State, council parking wardens could be on the city streets by October.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.