Agenda and minutes

Car Parking Task and Finish Forum - Thursday, 28th November, 2019 6.00 pm

Venue: Council chamber, Blackdown House, Border road, Honiton, EX14 1EJ

Contact: Chris Lane, Democratic Services Officer  01395 517544 email:  clane@eastdevon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

7.

Public speaking

Minutes:

Liz McLean, Sidmouth Resident, wished to address the Committee on the issue of the Car Parking charges in East Devon and with the permission of the Chairman, made contributions and questions during the course of the meeting.

 

8.

Minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 32 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 7 November 2019 were agreed as a true record.

 

9.

Declarations of interest

Minutes:

 

Minute 12 Car Parking TAFF Terms of Reference Cllr Joe Whibley – Personal Interest – Exmouth Town Councillor

 

Minute 12 Car Parking TAFF Terms of Reference Cllr Kim Bloxham – Personal Interest – Cranbrook Town Councillor

 

 

10.

Matters of urgency

Information on matters of urgency is available online

Minutes:

There were no matters of urgency.

11.

Confidential/exempt items

To agree any items to be dealt with after the public (including the press) have been excluded.

Minutes:

There were no matters which the officers recommended be dealt with in this way.

12.

Review of Council's Car Parking Operations pdf icon PDF 217 KB

Minutes:

Members of the Car Parking Task and Finish Forum (TAFF) discussed the Review of the Council’s Car Parking Operations. Andrew Ennis, Service Lead Environmental Health and Car Parks gave a detailed breakdown of the income and expenditure for each East Devon owned car park. From this members understood that there were a number of free car parks provided by the Council that were a net loss cost to run per annum.

 

During discussions the following points and questions were noted:

·        Are VAT numbers on car parking tickets so businesses can claim it back? Andrew Ennis, Service Lead – Environmental Health ad Car Parks agreed to investigate.

·        Are there any costs we can cut or reduce? What was the policy staff recharge for?

·        If town/parish councils ran the smaller car parks that operated at a net loss, could they operate these more efficiently?

·        The free car parks were often in areas where there was no other parking and a consequence of charging for them would be more on-street parking.

·        Acknowledgement of the importance of car parking charge income for the Council’s General Fund, particularly bearing in mind the reduction in Government grant and the forecast budget deficit.

·        If a town or parish council felt it was vital that a car park was free then they should be willing to take over the running costs.

·        It was reported that the £2 winter parking charge was often used by workers parking all day and filling up car parks. There was a need to increase turnover in these car parks to help the trade for town centre shops. A solution could be to make the winter £2 charge for long stay car parks only

·        Importance of looking at each car park individually and also a town by town basis.

·        The Council were trying to manage the car parks better.

·        The Council had declared a climate emergency but have no budget for it, would money from charging for the free car parks be better spent on this.

 

RESOLVED: 1. that Andrew Ennis, Service Lead – Environmental Health & Car Parks circulate the detailed breakdown of costs for each car park to all members of the TAFF as well as answers to questions around recharging issues.

                      2. that a short factual report be prepared on all car parks with residual income below £0 for the next meeting of the TAFF.

                      3. that the £2 winter car park offer be investigated to see whether the   charge is too low and to encourage greater turnover in car parks.

                      4. that the TAFF investigate whether an increase in all car park charges by £0.10 would bring in extra income.

                      

13.

Date of next meeting

Minutes:

The next meeting would be held on Thursday 19th December 2019 at 6.00pm in the Council Chamber.