Issue - meetings

This report recommends the adoption of a Parking Management Policy to formalise working practises within the parking team and adjust previously set Parking Management Programme Scoring Criteria.

Recommendation:

That the Committee agrees that the Parking Management Policy at Appendix A is progressed to Policy and Resources committee for approval.

The Principal Sustainable Travel Planner and Transport Officer presented a report which recommended the adoption of a new Parking Management Policy to formalise working practices within the parking team and adjust previously set Parking Management Programme scoring criteria.  The policy presented guiding principles for conducting parking consultations and designing parking schemes, as well as the handling of parking requests and petitions, and the approach to installing advisory H bar markings, vehicle crossovers, verge hardening, and advisory disabled parking bays.

The Committee heard that the policy was not exhaustive but focused on the areas which were considered to be the most important to address.  In developing the policy officers were also seeking to potentially influence any future policy with a newly established authority under local government re-organisation (LGR), although it was noted that the position in respect of LGR had changed since the publication of the agenda.

The Committee heard that the policy would not affect the application of any existing or forthcoming regulations or statutory guidance: these would apply separately to the policy.

A local resident spoke against the policy, and raised objections principally in relation to the approach to parking petitions which it was considered would hinder residents’ abilities to have their voices heard on parking issues.

Councillor Andrea Fraser also spoke on the item, highlighting that whilst the principle of a clear policy was welcomed, there were concerns about the proposed governance arrangements, particularly the loss of meaningful local Ward Member involvement.  Concerns were also raised about the proposed scoring system, the removal of recognition of Ward Councillor support and the introduction of officers’ discretion to adjust the score between minus 5 and plus 5 points.   Three safeguards were proposed: firstly, that Ward Councillors must be consulted on significant schemes (not ‘generally consulted’ as set out a paragraph 11.3 of the draft policy); secondly, where Ward Members and the Lead Member materially disagreed or there was a significant local opposition, there should be a mechanism for the decision to come back for member consideration; and thirdly, where a scheme was progressed outside the normal scoring prioritisation process, there should be a clear published justification.

In responding to the points raised by the first speaker, the Principal Sustainable Travel Planner and Transport Officer clarified that the policy did not overrule the Council’s Constitution in relation to the hearing of petitions. Instead, it sought to regularise how those petitions would then be processed within the parking team.  The intention was not to prevent people from challenging a very recent traffic regulation which had been implemented and had had an undesired effect.  The reference legislation and associated guidance was clear that local authorities must have a policy where there was the right to challenge parking policies through a petition or through requests to make a change to traffic orders. Accordingly, a petition would not be rejected if it related to a recent change (an example of this was the Rickmansworth West scheme). However, there was a need to have a policy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59