Agenda item

To examine the impact on the county’s town centres of the increase in car parking charges.

In his introduction the Chair reminded the Committee that the methodology for setting appropriate car parking charges across the county had been examined by the Committee in July 2015 and that the Committee had recommended that the lower of the two proposed charges be implemented.  Decisions on fees and charges is a power delegated to the Chief Officer and having considered all the relevant information the Lead Officer had decided that it would better to charge the higher of the two charges. 

 

Consequently, when implemented this decision had attracted some unfavourable reaction from residents and businesses.  In response to these concerns the Committee had requested that a report on the impact of the increased charges on the county’s towns be presented to members for consideration.  The Chair welcomed two members of the public who had attended the meeting and advised them that they could share their observations with the Committee at the conclusion of the report’s formal introduction. 

 

Introducing the report and associated appendices the Lead Member for Public Realm reminded the Committee that the increases in parking charges introduced in April 2016 was the first increase in Denbighshire since 2009.  He emphasised that not all charges had increased, for example the cost of an annual parking permit had remained unaltered. 

 

The long-standing initiative permitting each town council to nominate five free parking days in their town per year had also been retained, as had the practice of permitting free car parking in each town from 3pm daily during the four weeks running up to Christmas. 

 

The Lead Member informed the Committee that once notified of the new car parking tariffs two town councils had been innovative and decided to subsidise parking charges in their particular towns from within their own funds, others were of the view that this was not necessary.

 

Addressing the Committee a member of the public present stated that:

·         she had been surprised that only 35 complaints had been received, particularly as she was personally aware of a petition that had been handed in from the Ruthin area which had in excess of 1,100 signatures;

·         short stay car parking charges had increased by 300%, which made Denbighshire’s car parks considerably more expensive than those in neighbouring authorities;

·         as parking permits could only be purchased for long stay car parks it meant that this restricted parking options for disabled people.

 

 

 

 

During the discussion the following points were raised by Committee members:

·         the availability of annual parking permits needed to be promoted far more widely;

·         concerns that due to such a substantial increase in parking charges people would be looking at going shopping further afield, where charges were lower;

·         every town had its own individual needs, and the impact had felt worse in Ruthin as until this year the cost for motorists had been subsidised by monies given from the from a fund established by local members during the previous Council’s term of office.  However, this fund had now ceased and as this coincided with the introduction of the new charges, Ruthin had experienced a ‘double blow’ effect.  Ruthin Town Council had decided not to adopt the approach adopted by both Denbigh and Prestatyn Town Councils of subsidising parking costs in their towns;

·         whilst the income in the majority of car parks had increased since the introduction of the new tariffs, there had been fewer actual ticket sales;

·         the fact that parking tariffs were far lower in Mold than in Ruthin;

·         a feeling that car parking was not a major problem in Rhyl due to the fact that the major shops had relocated to Prestatyn, nevertheless people were reluctant to park in the underground car park operated by the Council due to cars left there being vandalised;

·         the number of complaints should not be used as the only benchmark for residents and others’ dissatisfaction with the new charges, consideration should be given to previous car park users who were now driving elsewhere to shop or find parking spaces, sometimes impacting on residential areas;

·         concerns on the lack of designated motorcycle/scooter parking bays in the county’s car park which resulted in smaller vehicles using full car parking bays in certain car parks;

·         acknowledged that the recent increase in car parking charges had caused some concern amongst residents, nevertheless they were considerably lower than in some other areas, particularly tourist areas.  Reference was made by one councillor to a number of places he had visited during the summer across North Wales and Shropshire. Only in two places had he not parked in a public car park due to excessive tariffs, both locations were coastal tourist towns in Gwynedd;

 

 

Councillor Rhys Hughes registered his personal objection to town councils subsidising car parking charges within their towns, as he was of the view that charges across the county should be uniform and consistent.

 

Other members present stated that whilst everyone would like free parking, the reality of the current financial climate meant that this was not possible if the Council wanted to invest in its car parks.  Whilst it was acknowledged that parking charges may have an impact on town centre footfall and businesses in general, the public’s shopping habits had also changed.  People tended to visit out of town retail parks, Sunday shopping and even 24 hour shopping was now available in a number of places, as well as internet shopping.  All of these aspects had impacted on traditional town centre shopping. 

 

There was no quantifiable evidence to demonstrate whether the £50K subsidy given by local members in the Ruthin area to subsidise parking charges over a five year period had actually made a difference to footfall or businesses in the town.  Committee members were also reminded that Denbighshire had its own out of town outlets e.g. Tweedmill and the Clwyd Retail Park which employed a number of residents and contributed towards the local economy.    

 

Responding to the points raised the Lead Member and officers advised that:

·         the number of complaints received, a total of 35, referred to the number of individual specific complaints received via the Council’s Customer Services Centre.  Signed petitions were not included in these figures;

·         recommendation 9 in appendix 2 recognised the need to promote the availability of annual parking permits and of exploring the viability of an option to pay for annual permits by instalments;

·         parking permits were only available for long stay car parks, the only exception being Market Street car park in Llangollen.  The rationale behind this was that long stay car parks were more likely to be used by people who were working rather than shoppers;

·         whilst percentage wise a 300% increase did seem a very steep hike, in money terms it related to short stay car parks where the cost of the minimum stay had actually increased by 20p;

·         the Council would not want to revise parking charges on a regular basis as undertaking such an exercise has some considerable associated costs i.e. the reprogramming of the pay and display meters across the county cost £11K, this did not include staffing costs;

·         Denbigh Member Area Group (MAG) had requested Parking Services officers to attend a meeting of Denbigh Town Council to discuss the car parking charges increase.  It was as a result of that meeting that the Town Council offered to introduce a subsidy;

·         whilst the number of actual tickets sold was lower than during the same period the previous year, the number of annual permits sold had increased considerably by 18%.  Further work was required on this data, including a footfall survey in order to analyse the actual impact on town centre businesses, but initial analysis of ticket sale figures seemed to suggest that individuals who had in the past purchased two half day tickets were now purchasing annual permits because this was cheaper in the long run;

·         with respect to parking charges in car parks in Flintshire, car parking charges in Mold were subsidised by the town council whereas elsewhere in the county car parking charges were higher.  With respect to comparison with other counties Denbighshire’s new tariffs were on a par with Conwy County Borough Council and other neighbouring authorities;

·         the availability of parking spaces, both short stay and long stay did not seem to be as much of an issue in Rhyl as elsewhere in the county, as the town had a number of easily accessible public and private car parks;

·         they were aware of the lack of designated motorcycle/disability scooter/cycle parking bays in the county and were currently working on plans to address this shortage;

·         all council-owned car parks across the county were subject to the same charging regime, however some town councils had opted to subsidise the charges and were therefore reimbursing the County Council the balance of income due from those car parks.  The County Council was therefore receiving full payment for each ticket purchased;

·         the Council had committed to invest in the county’s car parks in the long-term.  An asset management review was currently underway in relation to all county owned car parks with a view to establishing the level of maintenance and improvement works required in each one, including a list of priority projects.  It was envisaged that replacing all pay and display machines with better quality, more functional machines would cost in the region of £300K to £400K. 

·         there was a need to update and improve signage and undertake public realm work to make car parks more welcoming, particularly as they were the gateway to Denbighshire for tourists etc.;

·         the draft asset management plan could be presented to scrutiny for consultation in due course if members so wished;

·         a decision had been taken not to vary the cost of an hour’s car parking between long and short stay car parks.  It was only the three hour rated that had been varied;

·         discussions were currently underway with the Council’s Property Services Department on the viability of opening staff car parks as pay and display car parks at weekends and bank holidays etc., in particular the one in County Hall, now that the building and land was owned by the Council;

·         parking enforcement officers did enforce parking rules on Sundays up until the end of October, and continued with their enforcement work on Sundays after that date when events were being held;

·         a number of innovative options should be explored to help deliver the corporate priorities of developing the local economy, having clean and tidy streets, and investing in the county’s forty plus car parks.  These included transferable car park passes, hotel and B&B parking voucher schemes etc.; and

·         information sharing on the changes in car parking charges would have benefitted from better communication across the county, particularly the benefits of purchasing annual permits

 

The Chair advised the Committee that in future the Chief Officer delegated decision process would be subject to the same level of scrutiny, including an option of calling-in a decision for scrutiny, as Cabinet and Lead Member delegated decisions were at present. 

 

At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee was of the view that there was no merit in reviewing the car parking charges at present and that there would be far more benefit in adopting a proactive approach to managing and investing in the Council’s car parks.  There was also a need to keep residents informed of plans and developments for the Council’s car parks.  Following a detailed discussion the Committee:

 

RESOLVED: subject to the above observations, recommended that:

(i)            The Council retain the existing County-wide charging scheme, (as detailed in Appendix B to the report).

(ii)          Officers could amend the management arrangements in car parks, including introducing variations to the County-wide charging scheme, through discussions with MAGs, Town Councils and the Lead Member.

(iii)         Officers should attend each of the six Member Area Groups (MAGs) over the next six months (October 2016 to March 2017) to discuss the management arrangements for the car parks in their area.

(iv)         a car park asset management plan be developed to help prioritise investment, to include more modern pay and display machines; improved signage; improved general maintenance, environmental improvements including additional planting etc.

(v)          options be explored for using parking payment machines to issue vouchers for use in local shops, cafes and Council facilities. This could range from simple printed vouchers that print on the rear of every ticket to more sophisticated payment machines that offer multiple options.

(vi)          pay and display tickets should be made transferable between car parks within the County to improve flexibility especially for visitors, so someone could buy an all-day ticket in one car park, which would allow parking that day in any other Council car park across Denbighshire.

(vii)        potential expansion of the existing parking permit system to include more options aimed at tourists be explored. For example, parking permits with a duration of one week, or one weekend could be sold in local newsagents, as they do in places like Jersey.

(viii)      officers look at options for hotel and B&B parking voucher schemes which would allow hoteliers to issue their guests with a permit/parking voucher to cover the duration of the stay, and avoid instances of guests having to go out to buy a pay and display ticket first thing in the morning to avoid receiving a parking fine.

(ix)          Better promote the annual long stay parking permit and consider the introduction of payment in instalments and

(x)          a further progress report be presented to the Committee in six months’ time on the impact of the increase in car parking charges, along with the draft car park asset management plan for members’ observations.