RESOLVED

1.    That officers be authorised to proceed to consultation on the recommended approach to and proposed charges for on and off-street parking and permits including visitor permit sales.

2.    That the formal consultation process set out in appendix 7 be agreed and that Cabinet will have due regard to any comments raised as part of the formal consultation process in taking a final decision on whether to proceed with the implementation of any changes.

3.    That authority be delegated to the Director of Environment and Regeneration, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Housing and Transport, to finalise the necessary consultation documentation as required.

4.    That the report be referred to the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel for their consideration and views before Cabinet makes a final decision and before consultation as referred to in Recommendation 1 and 2.

Councillor Tobin Byers, the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health presented the report, thanking officers from across the Council who had been involved in writing both this and the previous Cabinet report which had provided the background and context to the proposed review of parking charges.

Councillor Byers outlined the purpose of the report which built on the previous report by setting out a number of recommendations including moving to consultation and outlined the public health rationale for the proposed review, specifically to contribute to the objectives set out in the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Air Quality Action Plan by improving air quality.  He highlighted the benefits to public health that parking policy can contribute to, and that the review of parking policy was one of the tools at the Council’s disposal in improving the health of its residents by shifting behaviour to less polluting vehicles and more sustainable modes of transport.

Councillor Martin Whelton, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Housing and Transport presented the proposed parking charges element of the report.  It had been a number of years since parking charges had been reviewed and charges had been frozen for a significant amount of time.  He detailed the proposed consultation and the initial referral to scrutiny, as it was felt to be essential for scrutiny to look into the policies before Cabinet made a decision, as Cabinet valued the work that scrutiny carry out.  The consultation would take place over the next four months before coming back to Cabinet, which would allow both the public and business to comment on the proposals which were essential in developing a strong policy framework to both improve air quality and reduce car usage in the borough.

The Director of Environment and Regeneration advised that reviewing parking policy was the only tool at the Council’s disposal in improving air quality as it had no control over traffic passing through the Borough.  Therefore it has to focus on addressing on and off street parking; and a number of other local authorities were considering similar reviews of parking policy.  The report emphasised that the diesel levy would not be reviewed until the Council had collected enough data to assess it properly, and therefore this review had been deferred until 2019.  There was a balance to be achieved between tackling air quality and supporting local businesses and recognising that residents have varying access to public transport.

At the invitation of the Chair, Eve Cohen addressed the Cabinet on the report in her capacity as a resident of the Borough.  She addressed the proposal for free Christmas parking which she felt contradicted the aim to reduce the impact of emissions on air quality and favoured shoppers who were car owners rather than those shoppers who used other sustainable modes of transport and did not improve footfall in the town centres.

The Leader thanked everyone for their contributions to the discussion and emphasised that this was the start of a major consultation process with the public, local businesses and the cross-party scrutiny process.

RESOLVED

1.    That officers be authorised to proceed to consultation on the recommended approach to and proposed charges for on and off-street parking and permits including visitor permit sales.

2.    That the formal consultation process set out in appendix 7 be agreed and that Cabinet will have due regard to any comments raised as part of the formal consultation process in taking a final decision on whether to proceed with the implementation of any changes.

3.    That authority be delegated to the Director of Environment and Regeneration, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Housing and Transport, to finalise the necessary consultation documentation as required.

4.    That the report be referred to the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel for their consideration and views before Cabinet makes a final decision and before consultation as referred to in Recommendation 1 and 2.