The Scrutiny Committee, when considering the response of the Consultation Working Group, made the following recommendations to the Economy Policy Development Group:
· The Group were very impressed by the general upbeat atmosphere in Crediton when compared to the other two main towns and RECOMMENDED that the Economic Development Team and Economy Policy Development Group explore further what might be causing this difference.
· The Group found that in all three towns car parking costs were high on the agenda. Noticeably in Crediton, where there was considered to be more on offer, people did not object to the charges. It was RECOMMENDED that the Economy Policy Development Group consider making parking charges relevant to the offering in the area.
The Group is asked to give consideration to these two recommendations.
Minutes:
The Scrutiny Committee had made two recommendations to the Economy Policy Development Group which were as follows:
· The Scrutiny Consultation Working Group had been very impressed by the general upbeat atmosphere in Crediton when compared to the other two main towns and RECOMMENDED that the Economic Development Team and the Economy Policy Development Group explore further what might be causing this difference.
· The Working Group had found that in all three towns parking costs were high on the agenda. Noticeably in Crediton, where there was considered to be more on offer, people did not object to the charges. It was RECOMMENDED that the Economy Policy Development Group consider making parking charges relevant to the offering in the area.
Discussion took place with regard to each recommendation in turn:
Sentiments in the three larger towns
The Scrutiny Committee’s Working Group had undertaken an exercise to visit each of the three main towns to ask open questions of the residents. It was explained that the Working Group had had no preconceived ideas. The Working Group had concluded that the information they had received represented good intelligence on people’s honest thoughts about where they lived or visited. There had been an ‘upbeat’ feel in Crediton which had not been reflected in the other towns. The question was asked as to why this was and why did Crediton have so many successful independent shops when compared to the other towns. It was suggested that this could have something to do with Tesco’s being slightly out of town, that Crediton had a market square, there were 3 dominant community groups all driven by enthusiastic and energetic volunteers. The venues where events happened were all within close proximity to each other and therefore geography might also be seen as an influencing factor. Having a main road running through the centre of Cullompton was not seen as helpful in this regard.
However, it was accepted that there were some indefinable factors that affected the success of one town over another which it was sometimes difficult to quantify. The same answers could not be applied everywhere. Towns had unique personalities and their own negative or positive factors affecting their own success.
It was explained that a Residents Survey had been carried out before Christmas and that the results of this as well as the findings of the Scrutiny Committee Working Group ought to be analysed to find out if there were common themes. The recent Residents Survey was based on the Local Government Association’s ‘placed-based’ survey model, which would allow benchmarking with other areas nationwide.
RESOLVED to wait until the Scrutiny Committee had received the results of the Residents Survey and had had an opportunity to analyse these results alongside their own Working Group findings before understanding further what was required of them as the Economy Policy Development Group.
(Proposed by Cllr R Evans and seconded by Cllr F J Rosamond)
Parking charges in each of the towns
The Director of Finance, Assets & Resources explained that charges had remained at the same levels since 1 April 2016 and that at the time Members had wanted a generic charging strategy rather than varying them across the District. He invited Members to join a working group in the next 6 – 8 months to work on new car parking charges for 2019/20.
It was requested that Members receive information relating to research in other areas of the country where different charging schemes were in operation.
RESOLVED that an item be placed on the agenda for 12 July 2018 meeting of this Group seeking the establishment of a Car Parking Working Group.
(Proposed by Cllr R Evans and seconded by Cllr Mrs N Wollatt)