Law-breaking motorists parking indiscriminately along Kendal's main street without fear of prosecution are believed by many to be the root cause of the town's traffic ills, reports Mike Addison.

Those complaining point out that the problem is not being policed properly and motorists openly admit they are flouting parking regulations because there is no danger of receiving a fixed penalty ticket.

With radical plans to shake-up Kendal's traffic now in tatters, and South Lakeland District Council struggling to find the money to introduce decriminalised parking enforcement (DPE), the fear is that the problem could grow.

That's why the Gazette is today launching its Park at Your Peril campaign.

Over the coming weeks reporters will be making random checks on the flow of traffic through town and we shall publish photographs of motorists and delivery van drivers who deliberately ignore parking restrictions.

Members of the public are also being encouraged to call a special hotline number if they see anyone blatantly breaking the law.

It is hoped that the shame of appearing in the local newspaper will achieve what the authorities have failed to do - deter rogue parking which is snarling up the town's traffic.

Supporting the launch of the campaign, Kendal Town Centre manager Maria Appleton said since the town's traffic warden service was withdrawn by Cumbria Constabulary in March last year, parking problems had noticeably worsened, particularly in Stricklandgate, where loading and unloading is going on throughout the day and drivers are deliberately abusing the system because there is no policing of regulations.

"You have cars parked on one side of the road and a lorry parked on the other and suddenly the town centre becomes an assault course," she said.

Chairman of Kendal's Traffic Steering Group, Cumbria County Coun Dave Clarke, described as "a free-for-all" the current parking arrangements in town.

"This loading and unloading and indiscriminate parking is causing congestion under the present system," he said.

"When we change the traffic system it is vital that we have parking decriminalisation in place by February at the very latest."

It was announced this week that the radical changes in traffic flows around Kendal are now to be introduced on a purely experimental basis for 18 months.

The decision follows an urgent meeting between officers of Cumbria County Council and Stagecoach North West to sort out the bus company's objection to proposals to introduce a "with flow" bus lane down Stricklandgate.

The introduction of phase one of the Kendal Transport Plan will now be delayed from October until early 2002.

SLDC's public services manager Morris Brundrett, who is responsible for parking in the local authority area, believes DPE, which the council plans to introduce next February, offers a solution to the problems which exist and did admit that the double-parking of vehicles on Kendal's main street was a major obstruction to the free flow of traffic through the town.

"There is no doubt in my mind that it seriously impedes the efficient flow of traffic and one sees it happening regularly," he said.

The Westmorland Gazette ventured out onto the streets to confront motorists who were ignoring the parking regulations and one driver from Grasmere, who had parked his Peugeot outside B-Wise without a disabled badge, proudly boasted about breaking the law.

"I do it regularly," he said.

"I do it for convenience and pop back every five minutes or so to make sure there are no police about.

It's one in the eye for the authorities."

And, despite having the fact that he was parking illegally pointed out to him, he casually climbed back into the driving seat of his car and started eating a pie he had bought from a nearby shops

A visitor from America who had left his Galaxy people carrier outside Past Times was unaware that he was parking illegally and said: "There are all these cars parked along here.

I thought it would be all right to stop." He appeared to panic and drove off immediately.

The full scale of the problem is clear for all to see and we urge members of the public to phone our Park at Your Peril hotline on 01539-710161 to report any town centre parking misdemeanours.