Agenda item

Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/24/17) on proposals for new pay and display schemes, attached.

An Impact Assessment has been prepared for the attention of Members at the meeting, is attached and available at New Pay and Display Schemes Impact Assessment.

RESOLVED

(a) that the benefits of identifying, through the consultation, the need to address the complex parking issues identified in the communities and the differing impacts on business and residents at varying times of the years, be recognised;

(b) that the proposals for pay and display parking in the towns of Braunton, Crediton, Dartmouth, Honiton, Okehampton, Salcombe, Sidmouth and Tavistock do not proceed; and

(c) that proposals from the communities be invited, on how they would wish to address their parking issues, so that joint sustainable solutions can be developed in the future.

(Councillors Dewhirst, Leaver, Letch and Whitton attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/24/17) outlining proposals for new pay and display schemes, circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

The Cabinet noted that Pay & Display (P&D) was often used to manage on-street parking opportunities for traffic visiting key communities. The tariffs were set to assist in managing parking stock, to minimise congestion and assist in ensuring the right parking opportunities were available to support town centres.

In November 2022 a revised Policy was presented to Cabinet outlining the proposed approach to parking management.  The Report had also identified 8 communities (Braunton, Crediton, Dartmouth, Honiton, Okehampton, Salcombe, Sidmouth and Tavistock) where parking restrictions should be reviewed.  A copy of that Policy was included in Appendix 1 to the Report.

Schemes had been developed and advertised for the 8 communities identified in the November 2022 report and details of the proposals for the 8 communities were attached at Appendix 2 and shown on the plans contained in the supplementary information to the Report.

Option A had been to implement the schemes as advertised, however, there had been significant objection across all communities, and therefore option A had been rejected as a potential solution.

Option B was to modify proposals based on feedback through the consultation process, however, there had been no comments received through the consultation process that identified specific changes that would allow the proposals to be modified to better suit the needs of communities.  As a consequence, Option B was also rejected as a current solution.

The consultation process was outlined in section 5 of the Report. The Cabinet noted that during the advertising period 5,323 representations had been received and they were summarised by each affected community and whether they had supported or objected to the proposals.

It was important to note that all affected Town Councils engaged with the consultation process, but only Salcombe had been able to offer their support.  Braunton, Crediton, Dartmouth Honiton, Okehampton, and Tavistock Town Councils had objections to the proposals throughout the process.

No comments had been received from other statutory consultees, such as Police, Fire, and Ambulance services.

The full summary of all comments received for each community was included in Appendix 4, but the key themes related to;

·       Impact on High Street & Business (2918, 55%)

·       Existing Restrictions are effective (1146, 21%)

·       Proposals are designed to generate an income for the County Council

·       Impact on availability of parking for workers

A petition of over 3,000 signatures had been received from Dartmouth Against Metered Parking (DAMP). As part of this, 1,579 signatories chose to provide additional comments which had been summarised in Appendix 5.

A petition had also been received against the introduction of Pay & Display in Crediton.

An Impact Assessment had been prepared for the attention of Members at the meeting and was available at New Pay and Display Schemes Impact Assessment. This highlighted that the review, as initially proposed, would affect local residents, visitors / shoppers, and local businesses but its intention was to contribute to the effective management of traffic.

In summary, it was important that the authority applied the correct parking restrictions in order to manage traffic in Devon’s communities and ensure effective and sustainable parking enforcement. However, it was also important that the Council recognised the significant level of objections that had been received, hence the recommendation that the proposals were not implemented.

The matter having been debated and the options and alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability and carbon impact, risk management, equality and legal considerations and alignment with the Council’s Strategic Plan) set out in the Director’s Report having been considered:

it was MOVED by Councillor Hughes, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

RESOLVED

(a) that the benefits of identifying, through the consultation, the need to address the complex parking issues identified in the communities and the differing impacts on business and residents at varying times of the years, be recognised;

(b) that the proposals for pay and display parking in the towns of Braunton, Crediton, Dartmouth, Honiton, Okehampton, Salcombe, Sidmouth and Tavistock do not proceed; and

(c) that proposals from the communities be invited, on how they would wish to address their parking issues, so that joint sustainable solutions can be developed in the future.