Agenda item

To receive a further update about staff car parking in Trowbridge in light of the proposal to build the new Trowbridge Leisure Centre on the County Hall East Wing site.

Amanda George, Head of Strategic HR, introduced the report and provided a further update about staff car parking in Trowbridge in light of the proposal to build the new Trowbridge Leisure Centre on the County Hall East Wing site.

Reference was made to the previous update presented to the Committee at their meeting on 27 November 2024, and Members were informed that since that meeting, the Staff Car Parking Working Group had continued to meet on a monthly basis to ensure arrangements were in place for Spring 2025, when it was expected that the work on the East Wing site would commence.

It was then highlighted that in December 2024, a car parking meter had been installed next to the visitors’ spaces which issues free tickets for visitor stays for a maximum of 2 hours to ensure adequate turnover of these spaces to accommodate the number of visitors to County Hall. Officers noted that a review of the current priority parking permit criteria and roles had taken place to streamline the use of those permits, with Heads of Service proposing which roles should be allocated such permits, and that a report was being drafted for the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) to agree the changes with the aim for the new permit system to be in place by the end of February 2025.

In response to a number of queries raised at the last meeting of the Committee, officers noted that the Facilities Management (FM) Team had monitored the County Hall car parks for a week in July and a week in September 2024 to determine the average vacancy rate by day. It was found that the vacancy rates for the East Wing and the Greyhound car parks to be significant at approximately 100 per day, with greater numbers on a Monday and Friday. It was then confirmed that the FM Team had reviewed the vacancy rate for a week in January 2025 and reported similar numbers, with a slight dip on the Wednesday to 76 vacant spaces. As such, officers felt that the surveys determined that the approximate reduction in spaces of 43 as a result of the Leisure Centre development was unlikely to be an issue. Moreover, officers confirmed that the Lovemead car park had 149 spaces in total, with Council staff able to use 100 of those spaces, and that the Car Parking Team did not believe that there would be an impact on the public as the car park was currently underutilised. Likewise, the Car Parking Team had confirmed that the Emery Gate car park in Chippenham was not available for staff to use, therefore employees were in a similar position when attending Monkton Park, with some staff able to park in car parks closer to the building and others having to use car parks further away.

During the discussion, points included:

• It was acknowledged that the signage for the car parking meter at County Hall needed to be more visible and officers were liaising with FM to improve this.
• Officers noted that they were still awaiting further updates on how many spaces would be lost during the construction phase of the Leisure Centre development, but that it was expected that the number of spaces lost as a result of the finalised site would be equal to those during construction.
• It was clarified that those visitors with Blue Badges were exempt from the 2 hour maximum stay, however officers noted that if there were any particular mobility issues, arrangements could be made with Parking Services to extend any permits or the 2 hour limit.
• Finally, it was confirmed that additional vacancy rate surveys would be undertaken throughout the year and Members requested that they also be conducted at different times of the day to provide a more accurate representation.

At the conclusion of the discussion, it was then:

Resolved:

The Committee noted the updates to the staff car parking review.