Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Packman.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

Councillor Austin proposed, Councillor Britcher seconded and Members agreed the minutes of the working party meeting held on 26 October 2023 to be a correct record.

The Chair invited Members to share any experiences and thoughts regarding the negative impact of tourism in the district and any views or ideas for mitigating such impacts. Members made the following comments:

·  The volume of traffic due to tourists and lack of facilities for toilets and litter as well as urinating in residents’ gardens were some of the problems faced in some parts of the district;

·  It might help if the council provided for overnight camping facilities on the beaches;

·  Enforcement remained an issue. There were no fixed penalty notices issues despite having PSPOs;

·  Currently the Council’s enforcement officers were only educational as they did not have the powers to issue fixed notice penalties;

·  The Council should consider monetising visits at the Botany Bay;

·  It was important for the working party to come up with realistic recommendations for consideration by Cabinet;

·  An approach for issuing out cleansing contracts that were dependent on the weather should be considered;

·  The Council should consider setting up tourist facilities (AIRES) each year and these would offer overnight parking on preferential rates for these visitors. This approach was currently being practised elsewhere in Europe;

·  AIRES in France have modest facilities like grey water and back water for kitchen, bathing and toilet use;

·  At Kingsgate and Botany Bays there were no parking facilities and very few toilets for visitors;

·  There were a number of successful events that were hosted in the district. However, organisers for these events, such as the Folk Week and Dickens Week sometimes felt unsupported by the Council;

·  There was a need for the Council to communicate effectively with events organisers;

·  Parish and Town Councils would be welcome the opportunity to work with TDC in supporting events organisers;

·  Could a topic on how TDC can work with Parish and Town Councils in supporting events organisers be added to the OSP Work Programme?

·  During covid there was extra funding that was allocated to beach cleaning. Could this allocation be re-introduced?

·  Could the toilets on beaches be opened for longer?

·  Could the option to introduce the AIRES be considered where different car parks could be used to set up AIRES?

·  There was space at Palm Bay for setting up such a facility;

·  There were a number of individuals with AIRES experience in the local communities who could be asked to assist with setting up AIRES facilities;

·  It might be a good idea for the Council to provide more concessions in Kingsgate;

·  There were no incentives for visitors to use beach car parking. This should be looked at through the ongoing parking review;

·  Jos Bay and Palm Bay could be monetised in Winter to set up a caravan parking site;

·  Currently there were a number of camp sites that were being advertised in the district. Waste from these sites was being channelled into the sea;

·  Although the Council could move people on from certain sites, they were not allowed to charge them if there were no facilities being offered at those sites.

Chris Blundell, Director  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.