Agenda item

That the Housing Services Manager – Development to present a report to the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee seeking approval for parking requirements to be determined on a case by case basis for new developments and Housing Estates parking management.

(1)        That members considered and agreed approval for parking requirements to be determined on a case by case basis for new developments as well as Housing estates parking management.

The Chairman advised that parking was always a contentious issue when delivering new developments and she had been particularly conscious of the Council’s responsibilities within the Local Plan.

Rochelle Hoyte, Service Manager, Housing Development presented a report to the Cabinet Committee and advised that there were no updates to the report on pages 89-100 of the agenda and recommended that members of the Cabinet Committee considered and agreed approval for parking requirements to be determined on a case to case basis.

The report had come about by the way the Council had tried to manage parking within existing estates and thinking about parking in the new developments going forward. There were issues with the Local Plan in terms of how the Council mange parking and how much parking was to be provided for the new developments. Every site was different so the need for a blanket approach was not the way forward.

Councillor A Patel stated that he was seeking reassurance that where there were bungalow sites would there be allocated parking for those bungalows because the likelihood was that the bungalow would have a disabled person residing there.

R Hoyte stated that all bungalow sites or bungalow units on development sites would have allocated parking, part of the problem had been within the Estates and Land team actually allocating parking spaces for residents had been something that wasn’t on the plan before. She advised that she had highlighted this problem in the report on page 89-90.

Councillor A Patel asked if there was a policy or a clause set for the number of electrical charging points per development or dwelling.

R Hoyte stated that the Council did not have an electrical charge point policy per se, but as part of becoming more carbon neutral, the Council were looking at, within our developments, of putting in the infrastructure and the electrical charging parking points. Discussions were presently taking place around how that was charged back and how they would operate and from what company. It was discussed and agreed that the infrastructure for charging points would always be installed on new developments and at a later date, if it was required, the installation of the charging points could be added.

Councillor J Philip advised that the Council did have a policy on electrical charging points for new development which was very clearly set out in the Local Plan. As we go through planning that should be a condition on all planning permissions issued.

He stated that we had to make sure when we are doing things in our housing estates that we don’t overly favour people more than we would a non-housing residents. When you buy a house and there was a space outside on the road that the space does not belong to you, anyone can park there and we have to be careful that we don’t overrule and give particular preference to some. When people need a space from an ability point of view that makes complete sense, we just need to make sure that we get a good balance.

The Chairman asked if their was any funding that the Council could access particularly looking at more carbon neutral developments in terms of providing the electrical charging spaces.

R Hoyte advised that there was a Sustainability team that was quite new to the Epping structure and they were looking at the different types of grants that were available and we are waiting for these to filter through to us to ask what we can and cannot apply for and how we could use these grants in our new developments.

The Chairman highlighted that parking on grass verges and the damage this was doing to the verges was becoming an issue all over the district. She asked if officers could look in more depth around the protection of grass verges and also where necessary, potentially using the space as appropriate for parking. She advised that she would discuss this with the officers offline.

Decision:

(1)        That members considered and agreed approval for parking requirements to be determined on a case by case basis for new developments as well as Housing estates parking management.

Reasons for Proposed Decision:

Set out in its Terms of Reference, the Council House Building Cabinet Committee was to monitor and report to the Council, on an annual basis progress and expenditure concerning the Council House Building Programme. This report reviews parking.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

There were no other options considered for action.