THE introduction of private parking attendants in East Lothian has been hailed as a success by the local authority, after they shared a picture of a deserted street in Dunbar.

East Lothian Council’s new parking attendants were given the authority to start issuing penalty notices on Monday, January 23, after weeks of being in the county in an advisory capacity.

And the council tweeted a photograph of West Port, in Dunbar, last Friday, which declared their impact was already being seen.

The picture showed a deserted West Port, with no cars parked on the prohibited lines and the comment: “New parking enforcement taking effect and freeing town centres from congestion and dangerous parking.”

So far the council and NSL Ltd, which operates the new parking attendants, have not been able to say how many tickets were issued in the team’s first two weeks.

However, the council said that they understood that a number of tickets had been handed out and hot spots in the towns uncovered.

Professional golfer Catriona Matthew responded to East Lothian Council’s social media comment about Dunbar by pointing out that traffic was not eased everywhere. She told them: “North Berwick as bad as ever today.”