Decision Maker: Executive
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: Yes
Is subject to call in?: No
To consider the Off-Street Parking Business
Plan and proposed street parking tariffs.
Decision:
(1) That the Monday to Saturday and Sunday ‘daytime’ charges across off-street car parks be held at the current levels to support the town centre economy, except for those at Farnham Road MSCP, Bedford Road Surface, Commercial Road 2, Mary Road and Old Police Station car parks.
(2) That a discounted ‘early-bird’ rate of 90p per hour be introduced at Farnham Road MSCP, instead of the present £1 per hour, for those that enter the car park before 7.00am, and that the maximum daily charge of £7.20 be levied for these users, instead of the standard £8.00.
(3) That the hourly Monday to Saturday ‘daytime’ rate in Bedford Road Surface, Commercial Road 2, Mary Road and Old Police Station car parks for stays up to 3 hours in duration be increased from £1.30 per hour to £1.50 per hour, and that from April 2021 all tariffs across the town centre car parks be increased by 10p per hour, or equivalent thereof, in respect to season tickets and contract parking rates.
(4) That the Monday to Friday and Monday to Saturday season ticket and pre-payment card charges in York Road MSCP be increased by 5%.
(5) That approval be given to on-street residents’ permit holders for Areas A, B and D to park in all the town centre pay and display car parks until 10am the next day (Monday to Saturday) rather than 8am, if they purchase and display a valid pay and display ticket for the previous evening between 6pm and 10pm,
(6) That the decking of Leapale Road MSCP car park be coated to improve the service life of the structure, in a similar fashion to that already present in Bedford Road MSCP and Castle MSCP, and that as part of the project, the spaces be increased in size / reduced in number (from 384 to around 300), to improve circulation within the car park and encourage greater use, particularly by users with mobility issues, those with young families, and electric vehicles.
(7) That the EV charging spaces be enforceable, and that the necessary changes to the traffic regulation order required to achieve this be advertised, objections invited, and that if any representations are received, these be considered and determined by the Parking Manager in consultation with the Lead Councillor.
(8) That the performance of Parking Services in 2018-19, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Executive, be noted.
Reasons:
(i)
In recent years, the incremental increases in
tariffs have not impacted the overall usage of the car
parks. This is in
spite of the challenging conditions being experienced by the
retail sector within ‘the high street’. The relatively modest changes to the pricing
structure introduced in York Road MSCP and North Street car parks
in April 2019 have continued this trend (see Appendix 1).
As was the case in 2019-20, the plan for 2020-21 is again to hold
the price of parking in the vast majority of car parks with a few
notable exceptions, namely Farnham Road MSCP, Bedford Road Surface, Commercial Road 2,
Mary Road and Old Police Station car parks,
(ii) Farnham Road MSCP is the primary long-stay car park within the town. To reflect this, the charges in this car park are lower than the short/medium-stay town centre car parks.
Access to this car park, for those travelling from all directions other than the west, involves driving around the Bridge Street gyratory system. At peak times, congestion can be an issue, albeit that this is a wider issue, rather than one specifically caused by the operation of this car park.
To encourage users of Farnham Road MSCP to arrive within the car park before the morning peak of the rush hour, it is proposed that the hourly rate for those arriving before 7am Monday to Saturday, be reduced from the current £1 per hour, to 90 pence per hour, for the duration of their stay. The maximum daily charge for users that arrive earlier will reduce from £8.00 to £7.20. It is hoped these changes will reduce congestion and assist with the town’s Air Quality and Climate Change target.
(iii) Currently, all the main short and medium-stay town centre car parks have a standardised charging structure. Whilst this is the case, it is evident that the surface car parks are often more popular than the multi-storey car parks. Indeed, queues can sometimes form on the approaches to the surface car parks, at times when ample spare capacity is available in nearby multi-storey car parks. This can lead to congestion.
Whilst preliminary findings of a recently undertaken Parking Study suggests car park users are more greatly influenced by convenience, rather than tariff, it is felt appropriate to adopt a pricing differential to encourage greater use of the larger-capacity, multi-storey car parks. A 20p differential in the hourly tariff between the surface and the multi-storey car parks may encourage changes in the behaviour for those users that might be more sensitive to price considerations.
Again, it is hoped these changes will assist with the town’s Air Quality and Climate Change targets by reducing queuing on the approaches to the smaller-capacity surface car parks.
Therefore, Option 2 (section 12.2) is recommended to achieve these aims.
(iv)
In April 2019, the Monday to Saturday
‘daytime’ charge in York Road MSCP was increased by 30
pence per hour, from £1.00 per hour to £1.30 per hour.
However, the decision was taken to increase season ticket and
pre-payment cards at a lower rate over a number
of years until equity was reached with other similar town
centre car parks.
The 5% season ticket increase proposed for 2020-21 is
in keeping with this plan to achieve equity over time.
(v) There tends to be significant spare capacity within the town centre car parks in the evenings and overnight. Meanwhile, permit-holding residents within certain parts of Areas A, B and D have raised concerns about the availability of on-street space in the vicinity of their homes, at these times.
Whilst possible changes to the operational hours of the town centre CPZ, being considered by the Guildford Joint Committee as part of the current on-street parking review, may go some way towards addressing these issues, there is scope to offer local permit-holding residents greater flexibility to use the pay and display car parks overnight.
Although Area D permit holders can already do so for free, they have to pay the normal daytime charges if they remain within the car park after 8am.
The proposal modifies this dispensation, by extending it to permit-holding residents of Areas A and B. Although all permit holders will be expected to purchase and display a valid ‘overnight’ ticket, costing £1, it will allow them to park until 10am the next day (Monday to Saturday), rather than 8am, when the normal ‘day-time’ charges start. Therefore, they effectively get £3.60-£3.80 worth of parking for £1.
Alternative options considered and rejected by the Executive:
Option 1 – No increase on pricing, no change to current situation. If Option 1 with no changes had been chosen, the forecasted 2020-21 budget for off-street parking would be £8,229,120, which was based on this year’s projections rather than the projected budget of £8,904,500.
Option 3 – increase charges at all off-street car parks by 10 pence per hour up to 3 hours. This would generate an estimated 6.5% increase in revenue of £420,000 per annum. If Option 3 had been implemented for all car parks, the forecasted 2020-21 budget for off-street parking would be £8,767,160, which was based on this year’s projections rather than the projected budget of £8,904,500.
Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:
None
Report author: Andy Harkin
Publication date: 22/01/2020
Date of decision: 21/01/2020
Decided at meeting: 21/01/2020 - Executive
Accompanying Documents: