POLICE will continue to issue tickets to vehicles parked illegally until Wrexham Council can set aside £234,000 for traffic wardens.
Responsibility for issuing parking tickets transferred from the police to local authorities after the offence was decriminalised.
Now local authorities can employ traffic wardens and get to keep the revenue they collect when people park on double yellow lines or in restricted areas.
But Wrexham Council says the start-up cost of a traffic warden scheme will be £234,000, which it cannot recover from the Assembly or any funding body.
Fines from tickets are expected to cover running costs without addressing the start-up cost.
But currently the town still has no wardens patrolling its streets. As a result Wrexham drivers are able to park anywhere as long as they are not causing an obstruction or are parked dangerously.
But strategic director for the council Paul Roberts says the council intends to employ wardens soon.
And in the meantime Wrexham Police will still ticket vehicles if they cause an obstruction or are parked dangerously.
'We want to pursue decriminalised parking enforcement as soon as funding can be put in place,' said Mr Roberts.
'Officers are currently working hard to get that funding.'
A spokesman for North Wales Police said the force wanted to stop issuing parking tickets as soon as possible.
'The police service has a number of priorities, none of which relates to undertaking the traffic warden function in areas where the local authority has chosen not to take on the function,' he said.
'The traffic warden function is not an appropriate use of police resources and we feel most people agree with that.'
