NEWTOWN SQUARE–At Monday night's Newtown Township Board of Supervisors meeting, the board agreed to approve the recommendation made by the Newtown Township Police Department to step up enforcement on overnight parking in residential streets around the township.

According to supervisors Chairman Joseph Catania, the township's overnight parking ordinance does not allow parking on residential streets from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., which applies to all residents.

"The problem is, though, that the past two to three years, the police department has been trying to give out warnings to make it subside rather than give tickets to residents," explained Catania. "The bottom line is that the warnings aren't working."

Some of the streets that the issue is of main concern include many of the narrow residential streets in the township, including Barren Road and Rockwood Road.

"The streets are narrow. When overnight parking takes place on both sides of the road, [supervisors vice chairman] Dr. [Ross] Lambert pointed out that emergency vehicles may not be able to get down those roads overnight," said Catania. "Since the warning system hasn't been working, the police department will enforce that ordinance. We really don't have much choice."

Catania said many of the narrow residential streets in the township may be able to handle parking on one side of the street but parking on both sides of the streets would make it difficult for emergency vehicles to pass through.

According to an email sent out by Lt. Chris Lunn, the police department has received an increased amount of complaints on overnight parking.

"Lately, the complaints about overnight parking violations have been getting worse. Therefore, the police department will go back to issuing parking tickets," said Lunn in the email.

Violators may receive a parking ticket of $15 and must be paid within 10 days of its issue date, according to Lunn. If a parking ticket is not paid within the 10 days, a traffic citation will be issued for the parking offense.