Issue - meetings

The Service Manager – Housing Management and Home Ownership to present a report to the Cabinet Committee with regard to adopting a Policy for the Allocation of Surplus Car Parking Spaces.

 (1)       That the Council reviews and adopts the Policy for Allocating Surplus Car Parking Spaces Provided by the Council Housebuilding Programme; and

(2)        That the Council adopts and implements the allocation and eligibility criteria including the advertising, selection/allocation, licencing/charging of parking permits and enforcement of surplus car parking spaces.

Deborah Fenton, Service Manager, Housing Management and Home Ownership, presented a report and draft policy regarding the allocation of surplus car parking spaces provided by the Council Housebuilding Programme. She advised the Cabinet Committee that the policy aimed to bring clarity and consistency to how surplus car parking spaces from newly built Council housing developments could be allocated to local residents in the surrounding areas and managed by Council staff.   

The number of parking spaces provided to these Council housing developments would be determined by the parking standards in the emerging Local Plan, influenced by public transport accessibility and other local issues.

The Council were proposing that applicants to the new Council housing developments would be allocated car parking spaces in accordance with the parking standards as specified by the planning obligations.

The remainder of those car parking spaces, if applicable, would be advertised and allocated to residents in the surrounding areas of the development in accordance with the allocation and eligibility criteria which was specified in this report.

The application rules would also determine process of allocation, including payment and enforcement.

It should be noted that some of the Council housing developments may be car free schemes and in these cases, relevant details will be included in the s106 agreement. It was important that housing applicants were notified that these new developments were car free schemes and off-street parking spaces would not be allocated at any time. Alternative responses would be explored where applicable and may include working with car club providers.

The draft policy was attached to the Agenda starting on page 55.

Council N Avey stated that given all the parking problems in the district he really welcomed this initiative. He asked if people were offered and accepted a property in a development which had no provision for a car, would they then get accepted into this surplus car parking scheme.

D Fenton advised that some of the schemes would be car free and if there were no car parking spaces then the Council would not be able to allocate them. The Council were taking a holistic approach to what they were building and would not be building sites that will cause parking stress in the immediate area.

Councillor J Philip stated that the Council should be looking to construct sites that include additional parking, as stated in the Local Plan, to minimise the amount of traffic on the roads as the more car parking there was the more traffic there was. If there were any extra spaces on site this could be looked at to get another building on the site and not additional car parking.

Councillor D Wixley stated that parking was a problem and always would be but a lot of people who drive company utility vehicles and have to bring them home, there was a need for parking and these individuals were not allowed to use these vehicles for private use, so it has to be taken into account that these residents do  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16