Issue - meetings

(a)     That the Committee notes the content of the 6 month review of the new car park charging regime introduced in May 2018; and

(b)     That the Committee recommends Cabinet approve the associated changes to the charging arrangements, as highlighted in this report, which are considered to be within the boundaries and limitations of the overall strategy.

            The Chief Officer (Streetscene & Transportation) introduced Chris Taylor and Ruth Cartwright who had been working on the programmes for car parking.

            The Chief Officer advised the Strategy was approved in March 2017 by Cabinet with the new Strategy and Charges introduced in May 2018 and that this report was a 6 month review following its introduction.

            He referred Members to the two limitations at 1.09 and the changes within the report at 1.10. The requests for change by Town & Community Councils were listed at 1.10 and at point 1.11 were listed the suggestions which were unable to be put forward. 

Buckley Town Council’s request for an extended period of free parking if the town council were providing the costs was shown at 1.11 (point 9). This unfortunately did not meet the limitations but it had been agreed to bring this to committee for their consideration of the effect of the recommendation, which could result in no enforcement and free access to parking.  This may result in car parks being used by shop workers and business owners leaving in a limited amount of available parking for shoppers and visitors. 

The Strategy and the Income Projections were listed at Appendix 1, with suggested changes to the Strategy listed in Appendix 2 and guidelines to assist Town & Community Councils at Appendix 4.  Any comments made on the report would be taken back to Cabinet in January.

            The Chair referred to the handout which had been circulated at the meeting from Buckley Town Council and suggested Members had some time to read this before continuing with the meeting.  It was confirmed this had only been received by Officers the previous day and that a lot of information had been requested in the handout which had to be completed by Officers prior to the meeting.

Adjournment          

            Councillor Joe Johnson asked if it was possible to have two designated parking spaces for the Police in Holywell and the Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Countryside agreed to look into this request.

Councillor Vicky Perfect reported that parking charges were working well in Flint and has improved available parking spaces near the town.

            Councillor Richard Jones referred to the income information contained in the report and believed the Parking Strategy should be tailored for each specific area. He referred to the MRUK (Assessing the Impact of Car Parking Charges on Town Centre Footfall) report prepared for WG and referred to the recommendations within that report which emphasised the need for local authorities to develop parking strategies which factor in local nuances in town centre layouts and retail offerings.  He added that the proposals put forward by Welsh Government on NNDR would help but local authorities must do their part also.  He continued saying car parking charges did not increase footfall in towns especially when Broughton car parks were free and there was more choice in Mold.  He felt it should be left to local towns to decide not local authorities.  Councillor Jones said the second limitation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37