Agenda item

To receive a report of the Environment and Enforcement Manager and the Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste providing recommendations from the Parking Consultation Working Group.

The Group had before it a report * from the Environment and Enforcement Manager and the Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste providing recommendations from the Parking Consultation Working Group. The group had been working through proposals to amend tariff functions in order to better support local community demand.

The contents of the report were outlined with particular reference to the following:

·       The Parking Consultation Working Group was formed to work with local communities and business groups to better understand the parking requirements of towns in Mid Devon. Members, Local business owners, Town Council and Officers represented the District through attending group meetings and these had been productive.

·       In order to determine the scope of the group and better understand what proposals could be explored, terms of reference were discussed and agreed by officers and representative members at its first meeting.

·       The group prioritised looking at long term stay tariffs and what could be done to potentially increase resident and visitor presence in our town centres. In particular, the group felt and aired the view that more needed to be done to incentivise the purchase of 3 hour parking tickets over purchasing 2 hour tickets. This would encourage people to spend longer periods of time when shopping and meeting family and friends in the community.

·       The group put forward new proposals regarding additional tariffs relevant to long stay car parks for consideration by the Economy Policy Development Group and, if seen as a viable option, by Cabinet for ratification. The priority for looking at this issue had come from representatives wanting the tariffs to be revised to encourage more visitors to stay longer in our town centres. It was felt by the group that this was a priority for consideration. By enabling users to have a varied choice in tariff options it would assist town centre business and encourage longer stays.

·       The proposals put forward by the group regarding Long Stay parking tariffs had been carefully deliberated and all aspects considered regarding how they supported the community, local businesses and the Council. The Council was praised by group members at its last meeting for taking steps to merge the gap between the Council and local communities when making decisions and for building greater collaboration and shared working.

·       The group was proposing to implement some additional tariff bands in Long Stay carparks throughout the district. The group was also proposing to implement a 3 hour tariff in Market Place, Tiverton, to support medium stay visitors in the centre of town. The group had also requested this PDG to consider five free Saturdays in the Multi Storey Car Park, Tiverton, High Street, Crediton and Station Road, Cullompton to support Christmas 2024. The proposed dates were:

·       23 November 2024

·       30 November 2024

·       7 December 2024

·       14 December 2024

·       21 December 2024

·     Further explorative discussions had been held about the possibility of offering free Sunday parking to compliment the Saturdays. This would be further looked into regarding funding and viability.

·     The proposals had been costed based on vends from the financial year 2022/23. However, due to the nature of the proposals which were implementing new tariff bands, it was extremely difficult to compare any relative data in respect of what the likely user take up would be. The costings were therefore best estimates based on knowledge of vends for the other tariff bands currently and were available on request.

·       The proposals in Appendix 1 of the report included the inflation increase of 6.7% approved by Cabinet to support the budget setting process.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·       The Chairman congratulated the Working Group on its work, praising the collaborative working ethos across all participating representatives.

·       The Council’s Finance officers were content with the proposals being made.

·       The Chairman hoped that the Working Group would continue to engage with local stakeholders in all such discussions in the future.

·       Feedback from the consultees to the Group had been very positive and had stated that this would a good example of working with the public to achieve desired aims for the local community.

RECOMMENDED to the Cabinet that:

a)    The proposed tariff changes be approved.

b)    Approval be given for five free Saturday’s parking at the Multi Storey Car Park Tiverton, High Street (St Saviours), Crediton and Station Road, Cullompton, in the lead up to Christmas 2024.

(Proposed by Cllr G Cochran and seconded by Cllr N Letch)

Reasons for the decision

Parking generated substantial revenue and proposals from the group were expected to help the council balance income against community requests. The group also explored opportunities to increase revenue streams.

The group considered how decisions impact on the climate, with special consideration given to improving climate impacts of parking through the implementation of technology such as EV Charging.

Note: * Report previously circulated.