Ealing Council’s parking enforcement officers were out and about across the borough tackling nuisance parking on Friday night.

The team of officers, supported by Ealing’s community safety service, Parkguard, patrolled problem areas in Southall and Northolt.

Officers focused on garages and vehicle traders who use the public highway as personal storage space in an unlawful manner, with a total of 20 vehicles removed from the streets.

Vehicles were removed because plates were missing; they had extensive body damage that rendered the vehicle not road worthy; severely expired tax or the vehicle was registered as statutory off road notification (SORN), meaning it should be kept in a garage and not on the road. In one case, the rear plate on a van did not match the front plate.

Officers issued 41 penalty charge notices (PCNs) for various offences including parking on zigzags and double yellow lines.

Councillor Deirdre Costigan, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for climate action, said: “Tackling illegal parking is a key priority for the council. It’s against the law as well as causing congestion and safety concerns for all road users. We regularly target hotspots and will be able to do even more of this when we bring our parking enforcement back in-house from April.”

Offenders are initially issued with a fine of £65. If this is unpaid after 14 days and the individual has not made a representation against the penalty charge, the fine will increase to £130. If the fine remains unpaid, the council will recover the charge through the courts.

Parking enforcement patrols are carried out regularly across the borough. Around Ealing covered those that took place in March and June last year.