Agenda item

The Cabinet is requested to consider the agenda report and its four appendices and to make the following resolutions:

(1)  That the charges set out within appendix 1 of the agenda report which, subject to consultation responses are to be implemented from 1 April 2018, be approved. 

(2)  That the Head of Commercial Services be authorised to give appropriate notice of any revised charges or changes as set out within this report pursuant to the Off-street Parking Places (Consolidation) Order 2015 and the Road Traffic Act 1984. 

(3)  That the use of Regulation 10 Penalty Charge Notices within Chichester District from 1 April 2018 be approved.

(4)  That the inclusion of Florence Road car park (subject to agreement from West Sussex County Council as the Highway Authority) onto the Parking Order for Chichester District and implements a maximum stay as indicated in section 4.13 of the agenda report be approved.

RESOLVED

(1)  That the charges set out within appendix 1 of the agenda report which, subject to consultation responses are to be implemented from 1 April 2018, be approved subject to the following amendments: (a) the parking charge as at present for long-stay car parks on Sundays be retained and (b) that parking in the Sylvia Beaufoy car park continues to remain free as at present. 

(2)  That the Head of Commercial Services be authorised to give appropriate notice of any revised charges or changes as set out within this report pursuant to the Off-street Parking Places (Consolidation) Order 2015 and the Road Traffic Act 1984. 

(3)  That the use of Regulation 10 Penalty Charge Notices within Chichester District from 1 April 2018 be approved.

(4)  That the inclusion of Florence Road car park (subject to agreement from West Sussex County Council as the Highway Authority) onto the Parking Order for Chichester District and implements a maximum stay as indicated in section 4.11 of the agenda report be approved.

The Cabinet considered the agenda report and its four appendices in the first agenda supplement.

The report was presented by Mr Dignum, Mrs Murphy and Miss Jardine.

Mrs Murphy and Miss Jardine were in attendance also to answer members’ questions and comments on points of detail.  

Mr Dignum summarised in particular section 4 (paras 4.1 to 4.4) of the report with regard to the background and the proposals for the proposed car park charges to come into force with effect from 1 April 2018 subject to the outcome of the required consultation. He informed the Cabinet that he sought its agreement to make two amendments to the charges proposed by officers namely: (a) the Sylvia Beaufoy car park in Petworth should remain entirely free of charge instead of introducing the charges set out in the table on page 258 of the first agenda supplement and (b) charges in the city’s long-stay car parks on Sundays should remain as they were currently and not be increased in line with section 3 in appendix 1 on page 257 of the first agenda supplement ie he advocated the alternative option in the last para of that section.

Mrs Murphy said that the parking proposals had been considered by CDC’s Chichester District Parking Forum which was comprised of representatives of all the relevant groups and interests. The aim was that CDC’s off-street charges complemented West Sussex County Council’s (WSCC) on-street charges. The charges agreed by the Cabinet at this meeting would be made the subject of a public consultation.

Mrs Lintill welcomed Mr Dignum’s proposal to retain the current no-charging regime at the Sylvia Beaufoy car park. She said that Mrs J Duncton, the other CDC Petworth ward member, agreed with her. 

Mrs Kilby said that she fully supported Florence Road car park being brought into the parking order in view of the current commuter use being made of it.

Mrs Murphy summarised the proposal in respect of the Florence Road car park in paras 4.10 and 4.11 of the report including the need to consult WSCC despite the fact that the car park belonged to CDC. The more efficient and effective enforcement option was for a free ticket for a maximum stay of three hours to be issued by a machine rather than rely on monitoring by patrol officers.

Miss Jardine summarised and explained the proposal to introduce the service of penalty charge notices pursuant to regulation 10 of the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England) General Directions 2007. If implemented, full training would be given to CDC staff and the new procedure would be given appropriate publicity.

Members supported the regulation 10 proposal.

Mrs Hardwick referred to the first two paras on page 259 of the first agenda supplement which justified the introduction of charges in the Sylvia Beaufoy car park and questioned the impact on turnover of Mr Dignum’s proposal to retain free car parking.

Mr Dignum explained that due account had been taken of the views of the two Petworth ward members, the fact that currently the proposed skatepark project and the other developments in the Pound Street car park were not expected to be implemented in the foreseeable future and there were no controlled parking zones in Petworth, and so the introduction of charges was not considered necessary at the current time.

Mrs Murphy set out the officers’ case for introducing charges, namely that the skatepark project was work in progress and there were concerns about how the Sylvia Beaufoy car park was currently being inappropriately used but this could not at the moment be controlled by the parking restrictions or the issue of penalty charge notices. Officers sought inter alia by the introduction of charges to maximise the use of all of CDC’s car park spaces in conjunction with projects in the Petworth Vision document. 

In her capacity as a trustee of Chichester Festival Theatre (CFT), in respect of which she declared a personal interest at this point in the meeting (minute 427 above refers), Mrs Tull addressed the meeting with the permission of Mr Dignum. She welcomed the long overdue proposal to allow customers to park for the period for which they had in fact paid. In her opinion the introduction of evening charges up to 20:00 in the Northgate and New Park car parks was counter-intuitive to the city’s night-time economy.  In the case of the CFT, she referred to the adverse impact on bar takings and the young, low-paid staff who now had to pay the Northgate charges. She pointed out that there was a perception that CDC had introduced the charges in order to make money. She alluded to the minutes of the Budget Task and Finish Group’s meeting on 15 December 2016 in which it was recorded that the £300,000 variance in car parks income was caused by an increase in the 2016-2017 budget which reflected projected demand which was not sustained. She said that car parks were notoriously vulnerable to the state of the economy and that there was no need for the unpopular evening charges. 

In reply Mr Dignum pointed out that the CFT representatives had not claimed at the meeting of the Chichester District Parking Forum on 6 September 2017 that its ticket sales had been adversely affected by the evening car park charges in Northgate. It was recognised that no car park charges were popular but CDC was entitled to augment its income in this way and thereby protect other vital services from cuts. This was, in his view, a fair cost for parking in a two-hour evening period. In his judgment the impact on the night-time economy was not as severe as Mrs Tull feared.

Mrs Murphy said that the introduction of charges had been very carefully examined and CDC had worked closely with the CFT and the New Park Centre to take into account their customer requirements and alternative payment methods such as by phone and contactless. The number of complaints received about evening charges had been low and the tariffs were comparable with those used by other local authorities, some of which charged up to 22:00. The situation would continue to be monitored and due account taken of the consultation feedback.

Mrs Taylor supported the proposals in their amended form and drew attention to the evening charges income figures to date in the fourth para of section 6 of appendix 1 (page 262 of the first agenda supplement).

Mr Dignum and Mr Connor commented that the decreased bar takings could be explained at least in part by the fact that the CFT drinks prices had recently been increased.

Mr Connor suggested that in the same way as was being proposed for the Florence Road car park, machines could also be installed in the Sylvia Beaufoy car park issuing tickets for up to three hours which could assist in improving the turnover capacity in that car park. Mr Dignum said that was a good idea and worthy of consideration.

Decision

The Cabinet voted unanimously on a show of hands in favour of making the resolution set out below, which included the two amendments proposed by Mr Dignum relating to the Sylvia Beaufoy car park and Sunday tariffs in the city’s long-stay car parks.

RESOLVED

(1)  That the charges set out within appendix 1 of the agenda report which, subject to consultation responses are to be implemented from 1 April 2018, be approved subject to the following amendments: (a) the parking charge as at present for long-stay car parks on Sundays be retained and (b) that parking in the Sylvia Beaufoy car park continues to remain free as at present. 

(2)  That the Head of Commercial Services be authorised to give appropriate notice of any revised charges or changes as set out within this report pursuant to the Off-street Parking Places (Consolidation) Order 2015 and the Road Traffic Act 1984. 

(3)  That the use of Regulation 10 Penalty Charge Notices within Chichester District from 1 April 2018 be approved.

(4)  That the inclusion of Florence Road car park (subject to agreement from West Sussex County Council as the Highway Authority) in the Parking Order for Chichester District and implements a maximum stay as indicated in section 4.11 of the agenda report be approved.

[Note At the end of this item there was a short adjournment between 11:27 and 11:39]