LANCASHIRE’S parking enforcement system has been thrown into turmoil after a council pulled out of the agreement at the eleventh hour.

Other town halls have yet to confirm participation in the new Parkwise scheme, despite being dubbed “last orders at the last chance saloon” by county council bosses.

District councils had been given until close of play yesterday to sign an agreement to continue the partnership between the county and district councils.

County Hall chiefs had insisted the arrangement had to include all 12 district councils.

But Ribble Valley Council has told the Lancashire Telegraph that it would not take part.

The current Parkwise deal, which has been dogged by overhead costs, expires in September 2009.

Graham Jagger, Ribble Valley Council street scene manager, said: “We have rejected the offer the county council put to us.

“They were not prepared to fund this scheme and we were expected to have a shared parking manager for the whole of East Lancashire which would mean an employee from another local authority overseeing our parking.

“If it is not resolved by September 2009 we will look after our own car parks and county will look after on street parking.

"We do not feel that is in the interest of people in the borough but we are not prepared to operate this scheme at a loss to Ribble Valley.”

Negotiations will take place this week to see if a deal can be salvaged.

County councillor Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for sustainable development, said: “This is disappointing.

“Obviously it will affect our deliberations next week.

“I had been keen to promote one scheme to the whole of Lancashire.

"We will have to assess the situation in light of this response.”

If no deal can be struck, two sets of wardens will be used, with the county council patrolling the highways and district councils controlling off-street car parks.

Burnley Council said it was “still in negotiations”, but Pendle councillors recently agreed to the new Parkwise model, which sets tough cost-saving targets for each district.

Hyndburn leader Peter Britcliffe claimed his council would not take part, saying: “The financial options are even worse than they were before and we feel we would lose money.”

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council already runs its own scheme and is not part of Parkwise.