Agenda item - Parking Tariff Review Across All Council Owned Car Parks

(Safer, Greener and Transport Portfolio Holder) To consider the attached report (C-012-2018/19).

(1) That following a review of car parking tariff in all Council owned car parks carried out under the objectives and principles set out in paragraph 2 of the report the following be agreed to be implemented by 1 March 2019:

(a) The existing tariff of 20 pence for 30 minutes, 80 or 90 pence for up to one hour and £1.60 or £1.80 for up to 2 hours be retained across the District;

(b) To accept and retain the principle of differential tariff between the car parks in towns with London Underground stations and rest of the District car parks;

(c) That the current tariff structure for stays above 2 hours be replaced with a linear hourly tariff structure as set out in paragraph 6;

(d) That short and long stay car parks be retained;

(e) To remove the five hour maximum stay in Cottis Lane and Civic Offices Car Parks in Epping and turn them back into short stay car parks with normal tariff from Monday to Saturday;

(f) To discontinue Season Ticket holders of Bakers Lane Car Park in Epping from parking in Cottis Lane Car Park;

(g) To have the same price for on and off street resident parking permit and to achieve that to increase price from the current £48 to £50 per year;

(h) To increase Season Tickets prices in line with all day parking charges and incrementally remove the current subsidy of 15% over the next four years;

(i) That the £1 all day charge, payable in some car parks, on Saturday and Sunday is retained and the free period reduced from 2 hrs to 1 hr;

(j) In car parks currently free on Saturday or Sunday a £1 all day charge is introduced with a 1 hr free period;

(k) All car parks where a full tariff is payable on Saturday will remain as such,

(l) The free Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday parking during the month of December will be retained; and

(m) To continue to allow free parking for Blue Badge holders and motor bikes.

(2) To agree to reallocate a sum of £30,000 from the Contaminated Land DDF budget by means of a virement to a budget for making the changes to traffic orders and replacing notice boards in car parks.

(3) To agree to recommend, subject to a further report, to the Council the following growth bids to the budget for the following additional funding:

(a) £100,000 Capital budget allocation in 2019/20 for environmental improvements;

(b) £100,000 Capital budget in 2019/20 pending the outcome of ongoing feasibility study of installation of electric charge points;

(c) £130,000 Capital budget in 2019/20 for installation of new CCTV systems and LED lighting;

(d) £40,000 DDF in 2019/20 for carrying out an assessment of suitability for new technological features like Automatic Number Plate Recognition facilities in car parks and feasibility of constructing additional levels above existing car parks; and

(e) Continued Services Budget growth of £20,000 in 2019/20 for ongoing costs associated with electrical charge points, environmental improvements and new CCTV systems.

(4) To note, subject to approval of recommendations above, that the total investment in car parks of £400,000 represents a pay back of a year and a quarter for the best case estimate income of £320,000 per year.

(5) To note the annual report on the performance of off street parking operations for 2017/18.

(6) That subject to a satisfactory resolution of demand for local parking of the surrounding properties, High Street, Harlow Road and the local school a charge of £1 all day be introduced in the Council owned car park in Roydon.

The Safer, Greener and Transport Portfolio Holder presented a report reviewing the parking tariffs across the Council owned car parks. He noted that the last tariff review was carried out in 2015. The Council owned car parks were under considerable pressure. Short stay shoppers and workers in town centres routinely complained about the lack of paid for parking. There was a perception, due to Council car parking charges being significantly lower than those at station car parks, that all day parking was taken up by commuters using the London Underground. The demands for parking by Season Tickets holders as well as workers in shops and local businesses regularly outstrip capacity. A number of new car parks have been created in the last few years however this was not enough. This review attempts to simplify the parking tariff, accept the principle of controlling demand by price, help local businesses by keeping the lower charge bands unchanged, gradually removing subsidy from Season Ticket prices, continue the differential tariff across the District, create uniformity in charging on weekends and reinvest some of the additional income in improving and enhancing user experience.

He also took the opportunity to thank Mr Durrani and his team who had worked very hard on this report.

Councillor Philip welcomed the tariff part of the report as it made logical sense especially the retention of the 20pence band as it allowed people to make brief use of our shops. However, he was less convinced by the request for additional funding, he thought the justification in the report was very weak, particularly when looking at about £400k of costs. He understood the need to complete the LED lighting and installing the electrical charging points. However, he was less convinced by the need for environmental enhancements including landscaping and planting. He would like further information before having spent money in 2015 on CCTVs, why we had to spend money again on replacing those CCTVs and why that was not brought up when we looked at CCTV as a whole over the district.

The Portfolio Holder asked if Councillor Philip would be happy to move forward with this if a proviso was put in to provide a more detailed report on the cost breakdown. Councillor Philip agreed as long as they would still have the ability to make separate decisions on each proposal.

Councillor C Whitbread noted that these were all only bids; nothing would be agreed until they had gone through the budget process. He would ask all officers and members bringing forward bids to have the strongest possible arguments as it would be a tough budget round as they trying to keep Council taxes low.

Councillor Chris Pond said that he agreed with most of the proposals but would like to see a programme for the environmental improvements and too this he would like to add lighting improvements as well as there were problems with lighting in the car parks. He also agreed with the speaker at the start of the meeting that the Burton Road and the Vere Road car parks should be exchanged, with the long stay in the less desirable car park for shoppers in Vere Road. He had observed commuters in the Burton Road car park in the morning going to the underground station, which contradicted the survey results. He would like the Portfolio Holder to enter into discussion with ward members to get further on this, especially on the Vere Road and Burton Road car parks. The Portfolio Holder agreed to have a discussion with the relevant ward members.

Councillor Mohindra endorsed the comments that the Leader had made that these were just bids at present. However he thought that the environmental bids were really quite critical and made a significant impact on the residents so he was happy to see that item and had suggested that there was a bit more added such as monitors for air pollution to provide further work and evidence. He also agreed with the point made about lighting in the car parks.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse thought that capacity in the car parks was crucial especially for shoppers who wanted to visit the town and not just for people who parked there all day. He was also concerned by paragraph 2 (f) ‘control of car parks by usage of tariff and not length of stay’. This was driven by the limitations of payment by phone and the phone software used. We should put pressure on the company to update their software as we cannot be the only council in this position. He also noted that it relied on displacing people to park in London Underground car parks, but they were full. He was also concerned about the ending of the one day rate in Cottis Lane as there were not the same issues as elsewhere for Saturday parking. The objective here seemed to get al the car parks in line. He asked the cabinet not to increase those Saturday car parking charges. The Portfolio Holder replied that the ‘my permit’ and top ups were a challenge and the council was conducting robust discussions with them to find a solution. With regard to Cottis Lane, one of the aims was to try make tariffs equitable and standardised across the district as best they could bearing in mind the commuter pressures around the stations.

Councillor Sartin was pleased to see the amended recommendation 6. It was a village car park with a different type of usage than that of a shopping area. She looked forward to having meetings with them to see how best to take this forward. The Portfolio Holder noted that the car park was a bit of an anomaly that had been missed out in previous years; he would be happy to discuss the options available.

The recommendations were agreed as modified to recommendation 3.

DECISION: