DRIVERS who park illegally are about to hand Bury Council a small fortune.

Town hall bosses have decided to take over parking enforcement from traffic wardens, and forecast profits of at least £105,000 a year.

Bury will employ an outside team of enforcers to hand out fines of £30 (for prompt payment) and £60, with profits being spent on local traffic measures.

Consultants estimate that the number of penalty notices issued will double to 18,000. Five of the ten Greater Manchester authorities already operate such a scheme. It should start in Bury next October. Patrols will be going round Bury streets four times a day, and at a lesser rate in other towns in the borough.

However, Lib Dem councillor Wilf Davison has called for a code of practice for parking enforcers.

He said that, in other towns, they had "gone over the top" and acted with "excessive zeal", and he would not want Bury to get a similar "draconian" reputation.

Coun Davison suggested there was a fortune to be made booking people who park on yellow lines outside schools, and wanted the matter to be handled sensitively.

Labour councillor Julie Higson told the executive committee that it was a "win-win" situation for Bury: the council could tackle parking problems more quickly, and plough any profits back into the highways service.

She said the council would look at putting down more yellow lines and creating residents' parking zones where people wanted them.

Coun Higson added: "We will send the wardens where there's a problem, not where we think there's a lot of money to be made.

"We may have customer care training for those who enforce it."