No vehicles were towed during the hours of the ban's enforcement, however 7 vehicles were towed last week outside of the 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. time frame

Last week's stretch of storms left some Haligonians with less money in their wallets.

Halifax Regional Municipality enforced the winter parking ban from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. four overnights in a row.

Over that stretch, 1,799 tickets were placed on the windshields of vehicles left parked on city streets.

There were 456 tickets issued last Tuesday, 351 on Wednesday, 416 on Thursday and 576 on Friday.

No vehicles were towed during the hours of the ban's enforcement, however HRM spokesperson Maggie-Jane Spray said 7 vehicles were towed last week outside of the 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. time frame

Under the province's Motor Vehicle Act, vehicles can be ticketed or towed at any time of day or night if they get in the way of snow clearing operations.

"We had 53 service requests come in for vehicles that were obstructing snow removal," Spray said. "Fortunately for most of those calls, vehicles were either gone before our officer arrived, or we were able to get the owner to move the vehicle before any towing or tickets had to be issued."

Spray explained HRM coordinates with the winter works supervisor to determine whether a vehicle should be ticketed or towed.

"Being able to ticket is usually our first step, however if it's a situation where a car on the street would block emergency vehicles from being able to go down that street, or it is significantly impeding snow removal, that's a situation where we would look at towing the vehicle," said Spray.

HRM's overnight winter parking ban is in effect from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. every year between Dec. 15 and Mar. 31, but it's only enforced during a declared weather event.

Prior to December 2011, HRM had a "blanket ban" where no vehicles were allowed to park on streets overnight during those dates.

Dartmouth Centre councillor Sam Austin is disappointed so many tickets had to be written last week but he has no interest in pushing for a return of the blanket ban.

"I wouldn't want to go back to that reality, so we need to make the current system work," he said. "It's good that we're issuing tickets but we probably need to do a better job on the towing, especially for vehicles that are really causing problems."

Austin said bylaws need to have teeth if they're going to be effective, and there is money in the upcoming budget to be more aggressive when it comes to towing during snow events.

According to HRM, the additional cash will be used to double the winter parking enforcement staff.

Austin added there's no doubt parked cars cause problems for snow removal crews.

"When you leave your car on the street, it does impede winter operations," Austin said. "Please try to get them off the road. You'll save yourself a ticket and potentially a tow."