COMMUNITY cops have carried their first parking blitz - dishing out a dozen tickets.

And they have vowed to continue swooping on town and village centres to prevent chaos on Borders high streets.

As part of widespread cuts Police Scotland withdrew its traffic wardens from our towns last month.

It could take up to three years for Scottish Borders Council to have an alternative enforcement service in place.

And fears were growing across communities that a parking free-for-all would lead to crashes and even deaths.

But the first unannounced blitz has now taken place in Selkirk with many more being planned.

Community PC Steve Sutherland, who was part of the operation, said: “We handed out 12 tickets for parking offences on Selkirk High Street and many other drivers were given warnings.

“We appreciate that drivers think there is no enforcement now but they are wrong. We came back over on Friday for a look at the High Street - just a couple of days after we’d handed out the tickets - and there wasn’t a single car parked on yellow lines.” Over the past few weeks community leaders in Galashiels, Selkirk, Melrose and other Borders towns have reported an increase in problem parking.

Drivers are ignoring on-street time restrictions and many are leaving their cars on both single yellow and double yellow lines.

PC Sutherland added: “There will be no set pattern to our parking enforcement days - we will just arrive in Selkirk, Hawick, Newtown or wherever.” A number of Scottish councils have already introduced Decriminalised Parking Enforcement but the Borders is not among them.

Plans are in place to eventually introduce local authority wardens but the process, if it can be proved viable, will take more than two years.

Selkirkshire councillor Gordon Edgar said: “The parking on the High Street in Selkirk is terrible at times. Buses struggle to get along as cars are parked on both sides of the street. The worry is that a fire engine won’t be able to get through during an emergency.” Ian King from Selkirk Community Council added: “There has been a lot of concern over illegal parking with the loss of the wardens. It is reassuring that the police are keeping their word.”