Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of Member's Interests.

The purpose of the report by the Head of Transport & Environment is to consider the current permit charges and the introduction of charges where none exist, in order to secure the future of Residents' Parking.

RECOMMENDED that:

(1)  A Traffic Regulation Order is promoted to enable the notification process for the following items and allow for the subsequent public consultation:

(i)            An annual charge is introduced for the first Resident permit per household, effective from 1^st April 2015 (to be charged on renewal);

(see pages 6&7 of the report for the schedule of proposed charges)

(ii)          An annual charge is introduced for all permits currently issued free of charge, effective from 1^st April 2015 (to be charged on renewal);

(iii)         Existing permit charges are increased proportionately on an annual basis.

(2)        Following the statutory Traffic Regulation Order notification process, a further report is brought back to the Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation to consider the responses to the formal public consultation on proposals contained within this Order.

(3)  That a subsequent report relating to the Review of Residents' Parking is brought before the Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation in March 2015, reporting on the public consultation response on existing parking zones and agreeing the way forward.

(1)  A Traffic Regulation Order is promoted to enable the notification process for the following items and allow for the subsequent public consultation:

(i)            An annual charge is introduced for the first Resident permit per household, effective from 1^st April 2015 (to be charged on renewal);

(refer to pages 6&7 of the report for the schedule of proposed charges)

(ii)          An annual charge is introduced from for all permits currently issued free of charge, effective from 1^st April 2015 (to be charged on renewal);

(iii)         Existing permit charges are increased proportionately on an annual basis.

(2)        Following the statutory Traffic Regulation Order notification process, a further report is brought back to the Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation to consider the responses to the formal public consultation on proposals contained within this Order.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

The Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation welcomed everyone to the meeting.  He first asked the City Solicitor to provide an opinion on the legality of the recommendations in the report in light of the Barnet case.  The City Solicitor advised that the Barnet case was different as the monies in that case were not being used to pay for the cost of administering the permits as would be the case in Portsmouth.  His advice was that the recommendations before the Cabinet Member were lawful.  The Cabinet Member advised that a substantial number of written representations had been received and had been made available to himself and to the Opposition Spokespersons. 

The Cabinet Member invited the Head of Transport & Environment, Mr Simon Moon to introduce the report.  He explained that the purpose of the report was to consider the current permit charges and the introduction of charges where none exist, in order to secure the future of residents' parking.  He explained that the purpose of the meeting today was to seek authority from the Cabinet Member for a Traffic Regulation Order to be promoted to enable the notification process for the items set out in paragraph 2 of the report and to allow for the subsequent public consultation.  Mr Moon advised that paragraph 3.1 of the report provided a brief summary of how the 35 residents' parking zones have operated since 1999.  Paragraph 3.2 of the report states that the residents' parking programme has been on hold since 2012.

Mr Moon advised that paragraph 4.4 of the report shows a table comparing resident permit charges among local authorities in the south of England region and advised that only Reading currently offers the first parking permit

free of charge.

Mr Moon said that pages 6 and 7 of the report set out permit charges both current and proposed.  He drew attention to an error in this part of the report. On page 6 with the table of charges, against resident permits it suggests third permits will be issued automatically and only subsequent permits to that have to be authorised.  The norm with residents parking schemes is that up to two permits will be issued and third and subsequent permits have to be authorised.

The Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation asked for additional clarification about the reasons for suspending the residents' parking programme in 2012.  Mr Moon said that the affordability of schemes meant that there was considerable pressure on the Traffic & Transportation cash limit because of the increasing costs of enforcing the schemes.  He confirmed that when the schemes were suspended the Council was losing approximately £150K per year.  Councillor Ellcome said that although one or two schemes had been in profit at the time of the suspension, the other 33 schemes were not profitable.

In response to queries the following matters were clarified:-

• Councillor Ellcome said that as part of the measures included in the budget, residents in each parking zone would be asked whether or not they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.