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Agenda item
Off-Street Car Parks Tariff Recommendations
Customer and Partnership – (C-026-2021-22) - to review the tariffs in EFDC off-street car parks.
Decision:
(1) Following a review of car parking tariffs in Council owned off-street car parks, the Cabinet agreed the following for implementation from 1st April 2022:
Parking Tariffs:
a) The existing tariffs of £0.20 for 30 minutes, £0.80/£0.90 for up to 1 hour and £1.60/£1.80 for up to 2 hours to be increased to £0.30 for 30 minutes, £1.00 for up to 1 hour and £2.00 for up to 2 hours across the District. This would create uniform tariffs across the District and simplify parking tariff.
b) To retain the tariffs for stays above 2 hours.
c) To extend full tariff on Saturday to apply to all car parks across the District.
d) To extend 1 hour free parking on Sunday to 2 hours across the District and increase all day £1.00 charge to £2.00.
e) To remove daily 1 hour free charging in Civic Offices Car Park (Sunday free allowance will remain) in consistency with other District car parks.
f) To review and consult on Tariffs for Beaumont Drive Car Park which will be introduced upon satisfactory resolutions for demand.
g) To retain free weekend and Bank Holiday parking during the month of December.
h) To continue free parking for Blue Badge holders and motorbikes.
Permits & Season Tickets:
i) To increase first residents permit charge from £50.00 to £55.00 per annum, in line with on-street charges.
j) Introduction of business and residents permits in Cornmill Car Park (Waltham Abbey) and business permits in Oakwood Hill East Car Park (Loughton).
k) Season Tickets 5% discount to be retained and prices to be adjusted in line with proposed parking charges.
l) To agree proposed operational hours of 08:00-18:00 in all car parks for consistency.
m) To agree for EFDC employees and members to use MiPermit at the Civic and in certain EFDC Off-Street Car Parks.
Minutes:
The Customer and Partnership Portfolio Holder, Councillor S Kane, introduced the report on off-street car parks tariffs. The purpose of the report was to review the tariffs in EFDC off-street car parks, which had not increased since 2015. The tariff review aims to ensure tariffs were set at a level sustainable to support the operation of car parks and to assist with budget pressures as a result of Covid-19 that had impacted maintenance and enhancement works. The review of the off-street car park tariffs also took into consideration the climate change action plan and the need to reduce our carbon footprint and improve air quality in Epping Forest.
Epping Forest District Council reviewed off-street parking tariffs periodically to ensure the charging regime was at an appropriate level across the District and did not undermine the vitality of our town centre economies.
Councillor Sartin brought up the car park in Roydon, which was the only council owned car park that presently did not charge; but it was also the only car park that was in a village. It was not near ordinary shopping facilities as those in other urban areas, apart from two businesses who my make use of it. The recommendation asks that charges be introduced and then carry out a feasibility study which seemed the wrong way round. She asked members that the recommendation be reworded to something like – ‘to carry out a full feasibility study to see if tariffs should be brought in, and to include consultations with residents, local businesses and the school’.
Councillor Kane was in agreement that the wording for recommendation 1(f) (the relevant recommendation) be changed to reflect that relevant consultation would be undertaken. The Portfolio Holder would then be able to reconsider the proposed decision in light of the results of the consultation.
Councillor Bedford asked about the permits and season tickets, recommendation (i), he was happy that they were reasonable but thought they were missing the book of tickets that residents were able to buy for visitors. He was told that NEPP handled this as it was about on-street parking.
Councillor Patel was in agreement with the new rounded up charges and asked if the ticket machines had been fitted with card readers to make payment easier. Also, will clear signage be put in place when charges were raised. Councillor Kane agreed that the signage would be place in time and would be clear. Mr Warwick added that he believed that all the car parks had machines that had card readers, but he would double check and get back to him to confirm.
Councillor Sartin added to Councillor Bedford’s query on visitor car parking. With the number of roads with double yellow lines in Roydon, people would have to pay to visit their friends, which was something else to consider.
Councillor Brookes had participated in the Stronger Place discussions on this topic. She noted that all members had also been consulted and that only a quarter had responded. She had one query, there was going to a loss of the one free hour at the Civic Offices, which may affect people coming into the civic offices seeking help, why was this? Councillor Kane replied that this was just to bring the car park into line with the others. Councillor C Whitbread added that this was also a High Street car park and this should be taken into consideration. Councillor Philip said that they could look at ways to reimburse people in appropriate cases. Councillor Whitbread agreed that this may be the way to go on this.
Councillor Murray said that we should not treat all car parks the same as there were very different towns in Epping Forest with different needs. He would also like to have seen more in the background papers on the costs for running the service etc. He noted that the case put forward by Councillor Sartin had been taken up by the Cabinet, but suggestions made on other Loughton sites had, in effect, been ignored.
Councillor Philip noted that they weighed up cases put forward and come to appropriate conclusions. They do listen and come to suitable decisions. They did not just ignore comments made but listen and maybe sometimes do not agree.
Councillor Kane asked if he had thoughts on having individual charges for each car park said that he did not think that made much sense, they had tried this since 2015 and it made no difference. It was about having even charges across the district. Councillor C Whitbread also noted that this report had also been debated at a Select Committee before it came here.
The Cabinet agreed the report subject to an amendment, to be made for the minutes, to recommendation 1(f).
Decision:
(1) Following a review of car parking tariffs in Council owned off-street car parks, the Cabinet agreed the following for implementation from 1st April 2022:
Parking Tariffs:
a) The existing tariffs of £0.20 for 30 minutes, £0.80/£0.90 for up to 1 hour and £1.60/£1.80 for up to 2 hours to be increased to £0.30 for 30 minutes, £1.00 for up to 1 hour and £2.00 for up to 2 hours across the District. This would create uniform tariffs across the District and simplify parking tariff.
b) To retain the tariffs for stays above 2 hours.
c) To extend full tariff on Saturday to apply to all car parks across the District.
d) To extend 1 hour free parking on Sunday to 2 hours across the District and increase all day £1.00 charge to £2.00.
e) To remove daily 1 hour free charging in Civic Offices Car Park (Sunday free allowance will remain) in consistency with other District car parks.
f) To review and consult on Tariffs for Beaumont Drive Car Park which may be introduced upon satisfactory resolutions for demand and for the Portfolio Holder to reconsider the decision in light of the consultation undertaken.
g) To retain free weekend and Bank Holiday parking during the month of December.
h) To continue free parking for Blue Badge holders and motorbikes.
Permits & Season Tickets:
i) To increase first residents permit charge from £50.00 to £55.00 per annum, in line with on-street charges.
j) Introduction of business and residents permits in Cornmill Car Park (Waltham Abbey) and business permits in Oakwood Hill East Car Park (Loughton).
k) Season Tickets 5% discount to be retained and prices to be adjusted in line with proposed parking charges.
l) To agree proposed operational hours of 08:00-18:00 in all car parks for consistency.
m) To agree for EFDC employees and members to use MiPermit at the Civic and in certain EFDC Off-Street Car Parks.
Reasons for Proposed Decision:
To review the current charging regime in EFDC off-street car parks which had not increased since 2015 and to ensure the charges were sustainable to support the operation and maintenance demand of car parks.
To generate additional income for the Council to assist with the financial pressures as a result of Covid-19. Financial pressures have impacted the programme of maintenance and enhancement works of the car parks.
Other Options for Action:
The do-nothing or delay option would not address the requirement to ensure car parking charges were appropriate and would not contribute to the Council’s budget objectives.
The option to increase in line inflationary across all tariffs would result in charging higher rates for above 2 hours than neighbouring authorities and may adversely impact occupancy rates, hence was not deemed sustainable.
The report has considered recommendations from the Stronger Place Select Committee. The recommendation of introducing free parking for up to 30 minutes has been modelled and this would have considerable cost impact upon Epping Forest District Council and is therefore deemed financially unsustainable. This recommendation also goes against the council’s climate change action plan and the desire to reduce the volume of traffic movements and would not help to improve the District’s air quality. The report benchmarks against other nearby local authorities and only East Herts and Brentwood offer free stays for 30 minutes and other local authorities do not offer 30-minute stays at all.
A further recommendation from Stronger Place Select Committee was to investigate the feasibility of the introduction of an annual payment system to allow the occasional use of all Epping Forest District Council car parks for up to 2 hours. Due to the complexity, cost and resource implications of introducing this, the viability of annual payment system will be looked at outside of the remit of this Tariff review.
Supporting documents:
- C-026- Report - Off-Street Parking Tariff Review (003) (002), item 80. PDF 351 KB
- C-026- Appendix A Benchmarking (002), item 80. PDF 219 KB
- C-026- Appendix B EqIA Form (002), item 80. PDF 202 KB