Agenda item

Councillor Dick Tonge, Cabinet Member for Transport and Highways, provided feedback on the Car Parking Strategy consultation which had been conducted recently to address the inconsistency inherited from the former district councils.

Councillor Tonge explained that parking was wider than just charging, and it made up an important part of local transport policy (e.g. improving street scenes, reducing traffic conflicts and supporting bus services). It was also important to review parking policy to ensure it was fit-for-purpose for new developments.

During the consultation, responses had been received from some 600 people, making over 5,000 comments. One petition had also been received.

In the Chippenham Community Area, a total of 23 responses had been received, with the following points being raised:

• It was critical that Vision Partnerships were at the centre of parking policy and that this strategy should respond to the emerging Master Plan.
• On-street parking that took place in Spanbourn Avenue was almost entirely from people working in the town.
• The car parks in the town centre should have the free hour re-instated. This used to work well and brought more trade to the town centre.
• People of all religions attending churches would be penalised. Carrying out religion was a basic freedom and charging for attending church by any means was against those rights.

The next steps in the process included a Cabinet decision meeting on 14 December 2010, with statutory procedures taking place from January to March 2011. It was planned that the implementation of changes would take effect from April 2011.

Following Councillor Tonge’s presentation, a number of questions and comments arose, as follows:

·         The rationalisation of car parking charges across the county we very welcome, particularly as car parking charges in Chippenham appeared to be higher than those in neighbouring towns.

·         Parking in residential street to avoid car parking charges was a persistent problem that caused frustration for residents. It was suggested that the small car park at the bottom of Spanbourn Avenue could be used as a free/low-cost car park to dissuade people from parking on residential streets.

·         More devolvement should be made to parish and town councils in line with the Localism agenda, so that decisions could be made appropriate to local needs.

·         There was no strategy to deal with problems with parking on residential streets, which was a particular problem on the streets around the train station. Introducing single yellow lines on residential streets was a local solution, but could also move the problem on to the next residential street.

·         The issue of residents parking needed to be addressed.

·         The response to the consultation appeared to be poor and a wider consultation should be considered.

·         The implementation of Sunday parking charges could have very unfortunate consequences, particularly for church out-reach programmes, which may be at risk if people can’t afford to park in the town on Sundays.

·         The two large out-of-town supermarkets in Chippenham offered free parking at present, and an increase in town centre car park charges could see more trade being taken from the High Street. Cabinet needed to consider this carefully and encourage good retail choice.

·         Approximately £3 million surplus from car parking charges was used to subsidise buses across the county, which could be at risk if the Council did not implement charging in car parks.

The Chairman thanked Councillor Tonge for the presentation.