Agenda item

Councillor Dawson asked Councillor K. Bright the following question:

“Will the council please set out their strategic action plan for seasonal parking chaos across the Thanet district.  With Warmer weather approaching, residents are enduring parking chaos which is causing obstructions to roads yet again around our golden beaches.

We know that Thanet is a visitor hotspot and is entering a busy time of the year. We also know that the council has not been successful with retaining wardens. Will the council  please produce a report to capture why the failings have occurred.  Why have you been unable to recruit and retain, compared with other local authorities in similar circumstances.  The council has found that this particular issue over the years has been unsustainable.  Is it now prudent that the council seek other measures, alternatives which may include outsourcing to create stability to this ongoing issue.”

Councillor K.Bright responded:

·  As has been widely communicated, a new parking strategy is being developed for Thanet. The vision for this strategy is to ensure there is high quality and appropriately located parking that supports economic development and regeneration, prioritises active & sustainable transport, and provides a positive parking experience for residents, businesses and visitors.  Consultation with a wide range of stakeholders has already taken place earlier this year along with survey work and analysis of parking data. A draft strategy has been produced following that consultation and a second round of consultation involving district councillors, town & parish councillors, stakeholder groups and members of the public is due to commence very shortly with more details on that to be shared very soon.

·  When completed, the strategy will set the high level direction for parking in Thanet and a range of plans and projects will be proposed from this for the benefit of Thanet’s residents and visitors.

·  There have been continuous efforts to recruit staff to vacant Civil Enforcement Officer posts.  It remains the case that this role is extremely difficult to recruit to and this is a problem faced by local authorities across the country with a number of Kent authorities currently running recruitment campaigns. We have successfully recruited a number of employees over the last 2 years but retention is also an issue with some staff deciding the role is not for them early in their employment.

·  Since April this year we have seen an increase in the number of staff in the team with 5 posts currently filled. Following recruitment there is a period of training and shadowing with experienced members of the team so it does take some time before new staff are able to perform the full functions of the role.  We continue to advertise for the role and have an objective of reaching a total of 9 full time equivalent posts filled by the end of the calendar year.  We offer a shift allowance and a market supplement (which was increased in value in April 2024) to enhance the attractiveness of the role to potential candidates.

·  Outsourcing of parking enforcement has been considered previously and outsourced enforcement in some areas such as littering has been trialed before. Parking enforcement is highly regulated and outsourcing of this service would make no difference to the legal responsibilities and requirements upon the council as a local authority.  Ensuring compliance and maintaining control would be more challenging.  The council does not undertake enforcement activity for the purposes of generating revenue, the primary purpose and intention is always to influence and encourage behavior changes to the benefit of our communities and neighbourhoods.

·  When enforcement services like this are outsourced to the private sector the overarching objectives can be distorted and operative actions may be driven by profit generating motives.  In such cases this can lead to a range of unintended negative consequences.  For example, some members of the public being targeted for relatively minor offences that result in a higher revenue return, whilst those more troublesome and complex issues that we know are important matters and concerns for our residents may not be prioritised by a private operator because they are too hard to generate a revenue stream from.

·  There are currently no plans to explore outsourcing in this area.

·  The subject of recruitment to enforcement roles and the development of the parking strategy have been well communicated for some time. The recruitment issue has also been the subject of previous questions to council recently.  There are no plans and no need to bring a report to the council on this matter.  We look forward to the completion of the parking strategy work and the plans and improvement projects that will be proposed as a result of that important work.

Councillor Dawson followed up by asking a supplementary question, asking whether the parking chaos would be monitored, if there was a potential to implement a parking portal, whereby complaints could be noted and if necessary be accessed by relevant police departments.

Councillor K.Bright responded that this would take budget considerations, but was a good a idea and this would be discussed further.