A DEVIZES councillor is appealing to colleagues on Kennet District Council to resist pressure to introduce "decriminalised" parking in the district.

Jeff Ody, the member for Devizes South, says that parking attendants will be under pressure to maximise the revenue from fines to cover the enormous cost of introducing the scheme.

Decriminalised parking means that offenders will not be pursued through the magistrates' courts as part of the criminal justice system, but fines will be enforced through the county courts as civil debt. Local councils will hold onto the fines imposed, rather than central government.

But the cost of bringing in the new system would put a financial strain on Kennet District Council. Government grants would be available for some of the £269,000 start up costs but not for the estimated £210,000 running costs in future years.

A report to the county council by consultants RTA Associates, seen by Kennet councillors in May, showed a healthy surplus to Kennet every year, but only if there were 9,830 penalty charge tickets issued. Currently Kennet issues about 4,000 a year.

Coun Ody said: "One of the greatest assets of our towns is the relaxed, friendly and non-confrontational relationship between motorists and parking wardens.

"If we move to decriminalised parking, a high-pressure regime of impersonal penalty enforcement will be introduced, for revenue and commercial reasons, which will destroy the amiable mood which we now enjoy in our streets."

A spokesman said that Wiltshire County Council is hoping to apply for decriminalising parking by the end of the year and to have a scheme in place by 2006. But the county would only proceed if the district councils agreed.