Agenda item

A Member asked whether the Chairman would be allowing public speaking during discussion of this item as there was some public interest. In response the Chairman advised Members that although initially there had been some interest from the public to speak on the parking item, they later declined to take up the opportunity. This meant that only the organiser of the petition would be speaking to any of the items.

The discussion of the item then began with Mr Roy Irving being invited by the Panel Chairman to address the meeting at which point Mr Irving presented the petition on 2017 parking charges.

Thereafter the Panel discussed the petition as requested by Full Council and Members made the following comments:

• Revenue generated from parking charges should be directed to the same service in order to improve that service;
• Any surplus should be carried forward to the following year rather than be allocated to the general fund;
• Increased parking charges would discourage visitors from outside the district to visit the area’s attractions and local residents would also be discouraged for the same reason;
• Cabinet should have a rethink about the new parking charges that are now in place for 2017/18;

Councillor Brimm, Cabinet Member for Operational Services suggested that in debating the petition, the Panel should consider the proposals that were included in the briefing note that was tabled at the meeting.

The Chairman then gave Members a moment to study the proposals outlined within the briefing note, which are attached at Annex 1 to the minutes. Further debate was had and Members made the following comments:

• Some Members were pleased that Cabinet had shown some degree of flexibility as reflected by the new proposals in the briefing note;
• The increase in the parking charges for 2017/18 were necessitated by the decrease in funding from central government;
• Reverting to the 2016/17 parking charges could in turn attract more visitors and hence more revenue;
• More parking spaces particularly in busier parking areas, could be installed with parking metres;
• The new parking charges would not necessarily increase revenue from that source;
• There is a need to consider both on-street and off-street parking at the same time in order to come up with a fair and realistic price structure, as each impacted on the other;

In response to Gavin Waite, Director of Operational Services gave the following response:

·  The 2017/18 fees and charges were considered by the Overview & Scrutiny Panel before Cabinet recommended these to Full Council for adoption;

·  Through the briefing note tabled at the Panel meeting (Annex 1 to the minutes) the Executive had offered option 1 and option 2 from which the Panel could recommend a new charge structure for the five parks referred in the note;

·  Option 1 would lead a loss of income of £10,000 and option 2 would cost council £20,000;

·  Officers could not give guarantees that savings could be found within Operational Services to absorb the loss if Council reverted the parking charges to the 2016/17 levels.

Tim Howes, Director of Corporate Governance advised the Panel that if Members recommended that Council reverted to the 2016/17 parking charges, they also would need to consider recommending alternative revenue sources to compensate for the loss of income resulting from such a recommendation.

Councillor Jaye-Jones proposed that the Panel recommended Option 2 in the briefing note to Cabinet however the Chairman advised that Members were already debating initial motion and so could not debate another, without resolving the first.

Councillor Campbell proposed, Councillor Ashbee seconded and the Panel recommended that Cabinet revert to the 2016/17 parking charges for the five seasonal car parks and to find the resulting shortfall from adjustments in other service areas.