Issue - meetings

To assist Members, the following documents are attached:-

·         Copy of the report of the Chief Officer (Streetscene and Transportation) – Flintshire Parking Policies

·         Copy of the Record of Decision

·         Copy of the Call In Notice

            That having considered the decision, the Overview & Scrutiny Committee was satisfied with the explanation that it had received and therefore the decision could be implemented. 

The Member Engagement Manager referred to the Call-in to the decision of the Cabinet from its meeting held on 21 April 2015 relating to Flintshire County Council’s Car Parking Strategy.  The Call-In notice had been signed by five Members of the Council.  To assist Members, the following documents had been circulated with the agenda:-

                        (a)       A copy of the procedure for dealing with a called-in item.

(b)       A copy of the report considered by Cabinet on 21 April 2015

(c)        A copy of the Cabinet Record of Decision No. 3157

(d)       A copy of the Call-in notice signed by Councillors Mike Peers, Neville Phillips, Arnold Woolley, Carol Ellis and Dennis Hutchinson.

The Member Engagement Manager explained the procedure for a Call-in meeting and detailed the four options available to the Committee.

The Chair invited the Call-in signatories to address the Committee.  Councillor Mike Peers, as the first of the signatories, detailed the reasons for the Call-in.  He explained that the decision had been called-in as the signatories felt that the Parking Strategy did not take into account the impact of parking charges on the vitality and viability of each town and community.  They also felt that the impact of out of town shopping centres with free parking on existing town centres had not been considered.  He said that a blanket approach had been taken in the introduction of parking charges which did not take account of the needs of the individual town centres.  Civil Parking Enforcement had been introduced in Flintshire in October 2013 and this had included a residential parking scheme.  Councillor Peers commented that scheme did not appear to be in place, except in Mold, and was therefore not generating the required income for the Council.  He spoke of local parking hotspots and indicated that he had requested information about the number of tickets that had been issued and had been advised that this was one.  He commented on the parking strategies for each individual town in Flintshire and highlighted the section on the proposed improvements to the car parks; he did not feel that the erection of pay and display signage and motorbike designated spaces was an improvement.  Councillor Peers felt that each town should have been considered individually to highlight issues of vitality and viability for the towns rather than applying a blanket approach across the County.  He felt that introducing a period of free parking should be offered in all of the Council owned car parks. 

In referring to comments from Mold Town Council and Denbighshire County Council on the issue of Broughton Retail Park, Councillor Peers said that there was evidence that out of town retail parks did have an impact on local towns, which was a concern.  He referred to a document from the Federation of Small Businesses and asked if the Cabinet Member or Chief Officer were aware of it; they were not.  Councillor Peers also spoke of a recent Welsh Government commissioned report and assessment on the impact of town centre  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5

As detailed in the recommendations with the following amendments and additions:

·         Charges for Talacre to be 20p for up to 2 hours, £2 for up to 4 hours and £4 all day

·         The 50p charge for parking at the short stay car parks in Mold be for 3 hours, not 2

·         Discussions to take place with Clwyd Theatr Cymru on contributions to car park maintenance

·         Residents Parking Policy be amended to apply for 24 hours a day 7 days per week

·         A progress report back to be submitted to Overview and Scrutiny in 12 months

The Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Environment introduced the Car Parking Strategy and the introduction of parking charges at all viable town car parks within the ownership of the Council.

            Following Member workshops which included representatives from Town and Community Councils and a public consultation exercise, the proposed parking management arrangements would be applied only in towns where the total number of available Council owned parking spaces exceeded 50 spaces and would therefore apply in the following towns:

• Flint
• Holywell
• Mold
• Buckley
• Connah’s Quay
• Queensferry
• Shotton

Talacre would also be included in the arrangements because of local concerns regarding parking and the impact it had on local communities and businesses.

Where possible a single consistent charging levy would be applied at each car park and a charging sheet list detailing the charging bands that would apply in each town was attached as appendix 2 to the report.

The introduction of car park charges would impact on the availability of local on-road parking spaces for residents.  To overcome this issue, effective residents parking schemes would be required in some areas of the County.  Each local parking strategy would contain details of any local resident parking schemes which would be required as a result of the new proposals.

The programme to introduce revised Traffic Regulation Orders and the resident parking schemes would be delivered to coincide with the introduction of parking charges.  Based on the information gained from the pilot, it had been assessed that the cost of delivering the residents parking scheme could be recovered through a charge for each residents parking scheme of £25 per annum per car.

The introduction of parking charges in both Flint and Mold would require that the associated staff and visitor car parks in those areas be considered as part of the local parking strategy.  This would therefore necessitate the introduction of an affordable and equitable parking permit scheme for the staff that worked at those facilities and used the Council car parks.  Following consultation with staff and Trades Unions, the original proposed charging arrangements for parking permits had been modified.

The cost of a parking permit would be equivalent to that provided to non-Council staff at public commuter car parks which was currently £100 per annum with a zero permit charge for staff employed on salaries at or below the nationally recognised living wage and to any modern apprentices employed by the Council.  Senior staff would be offered designated spaces at a premium rate and in line with current charging arrangements.

In common with other town car parks, there would be no charge for evening parking in Mold.

Where car parking charges were introduced in a town or area that were above the County wide base level, a contribution to the local Town or Community Council equivalent to 10% of the net difference between base level and actual charge level would be provided to the Town or Community Council to invest into the community.

Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 155