Agenda item

Assembly received and noted the terms of a petition presented by the Lead Petitioner, Mr Richard Mackenzie, requesting that the Council halt proposals to implement pay and display parking charges in Broad Street.

Mr Mackenzie thanked the Assembly for the opportunity to present the petition on behalf of the Broad Street businesses and stated that his family had been trading there for over 50 years.

He advised that the business community had been notified of the proposal in December 2011 by way of a letter which had stated that such a scheme would not deter visitors.  Mr Mackenzie said that this comment defied the widely held view that when such schemes were introduced, shoppers refused to pay the parking charges and preferred to shop where parking was free.

Mr Mackenzie raised the following points:

v  it had been in the last two years that parking difficulties had arisen in Broad Street

v  local residents had complained to the Council about the lack of parking in Broad Street and the abuse by some drivers of the two hour free parking rule, which had resulted in the Council's proposed Pay and Display Scheme

v  the two hour free parking rule, which when originally introduced and policed by wardens, had resulted in adequate parking for all visitors

v  the parking difficulties coincided with the building of a new school in Morland Road when contractors had parked their vehicles in Broad Street from early morning until the end of the day and this practice had not been challenged by parking wardens

v  when the contractors had left the site in March 2012, parking spaces in Broad Street had returned to the levels of two years earlier and this resulted in there no longer being any parking difficulties

v  the Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) should return to the implementation of the two hour free parking rule

In conclusion, Mr Mackenzie stated that:

Ø  the recession was causing severe hardship

Ø  the Council should not implement a scheme which would be detrimental to the local community and speed up the demise of a convenient local shopping centre such as Broad Street

Ø  the Council should utilise monies earmarked for the Pay and Display scheme on regeneration of the area.

Assembly received the response to the petition introduced by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Smith, who stated that houses had been built on two of the large car parks that had been in the area. He understood that Broad Street served the local community but expected that local residents would walk to the shops rather than drive.  The Leader stated that it was not this Council's intention to drive businesses out of the area by the proposed parking charge of 20p per hour, but to encourage people to visit Broad Street.  He referred to parking charges of 20p per twenty minutes in neighbouring boroughs. 

The Leader referred to the enormous strain put on the area by the Walk-in Medical Centre in Broad Street, but also referred to the free car park near Ballards Road.

He concluded by stating that the Pay and Display proposal was not a money making scheme for the Council and gave assurance to Mr Mackenzie that its effect on trading would be monitored over the course of the next year.

The Divisional Director for Environment, Robin Payne, explained the difficulties faced by the CEOs in enforcing the two hour free parking rule and confirmed that the Council would not make money from implementing this scheme.

In debating the matter, Members concurred with the Leader that the scheme should be monitored to ascertain whether or not it had had an effect on trade in the area but raised concerns as to the pressure put on parking by people accessing the Medical Centre and whether the CCTV cameras in the area recorded cars parked on double yellow lines.

In response, the Cabinet Member for Crime, Justice and Communities, Councillor Alexander, stated that the CCTV cameras in the area do record cars parked on double yellow lines.  She said that the proposed parking fee was only 20p and that the scheme should get traffic flowing in the area.  She noted that the Councillors were accountable to the residents and said that if, after monitoring the scheme as proposed, it was shown not to be successful, then it would be removed.

Assembly agreed for the reasons set out in the report that it was unable to support the petition.

The Chair thanked Mr Mackenzie for attending.