Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment.

That Cabinet confirms it would request Place & Resources Scrutiny Committee to review car parking charges within the context of the policy and, in particular to assess that the impact of the charges was consistent with the intentions of Cabinet when the decision was taken.

Reason for the decision

The decision was made at Full Council to debate the new charges with the view that if the evidence clearly showed a detrimental affect due to the car parking policy, then change would be recommended. Information has been gathered and presented in this report including:

The consistency of charging

Market comparison

Parking revenue

Visitor numbers

Impact on residents, businesses, and visitors

The Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment set out a report that had come forward following a petition presented to Full Council on 13 July 2023.  The petition was submitted by Mr Sims-Duff requesting that the new charges in Weymouth car parks (level 3) be reduced to match those of other Dorset Council towns. At that meeting Full Council decided that the petition should be referred to Cabinet for debate.

In presenting the report in response to the petition, the Portfolio Holder highlighted that parking charges prior to the local government reorganisation in 2019, differed vastly across the Dorset Council area. Work was carried out to align car parking charges which included stakeholder engagement throughout the strategy formation.

He further reported that the take up of parking permits had been good and hoped that more Dorset residents would invest in a permit going forward. He also reminded members that any funds from the parking charges were ringfenced and invested in highway usage only, emphasising that it was his responsibility to ensure that the council used the best avenue of income to support the highway service.

There was now a consistent charging approach across the Dorset Council area and charges were set following benchmarking with other coastal visitor destination car parks across the southwest. The report set out several tables showing: -

·       the impact on parking revenue and consequent impact on service delivery, including the impact of the inclement weather.

·       The impact on visitor numbers and car park usage and

·       The impact on residents, businesses, and visitors.

Cabinet was advised that the report consisted of as much usage data as was currently available, however data from predecessor councils was extremely limited.  The newly installed car park machines would be able to give better data going forward and every year the charges would be reviewed.

The Chairman invited non-executive members to ask questions of the Portfolio Holder. In response the Portfolio Holder confirmed

·       that the only complaint received, regarding charges, had been from the petitioner, there had been comments, but not further complaints.

·       Noted concerns regarding the three-tier approach, the above inflation levels, and the length of the current flexi permits. This could all form part of the annual review.

·       Data relating to the flexi permit would be made available to members.

·       Noted the request to change the winter charges by 2 weeks in response to the petition comments.

·       Noted that the restricted mobility permit could form part of the review.

As part of the petitions process, Mr N Sims-Duff was given the opportunity to respond to the report.

Mr Sims-Duff advised that he was supportive of the councils need to create revenue, but this needed to be done fairly across the whole county. He considered that there was a lot of evidence that indicated that people were not happy with the current car parking charges in the Weymouth area.  There had been 7,600 signatures expressing concerns that these higher charges were damaging Weymouth’s economy, and this should be reduced.  A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40