Agenda item

GCC Cabinet Member Councillor Nigel Moor and Philip Williams, Lead Commissioner – GCC have been invited to give a presentation followed by a Q and A session (line of questioning attached).

The CBC Cabinet Member Development and Safety, Councillor Andrew McKinlay and Mike Redman, Executive Director Environment will be in attendance to answer any relevant questions.

Philip Williams, Lead Commissioner Community Infrastructure, Gloucestershire County Council, gave Members a presentation on parking which is attached as an appendix to these minutes. He also circulated responses to the ward related questions posed in advance by Members and these are also attached as an appendix to the minutes.

The Chair invited Mr Basckin, an Eldorado Crescent resident, to address the committee regarding the permit scheme currently in place to allow commuters to park for free in Eldorado Road, Christchurch Road and Queen’s Road, in a trial while the train station’s car park was being revamped. He expressed his concern that residents would no longer have residents’ parking and that there was little engagement from the county council.

Mr Williams explained that the Cheltenham Spa improvements represented a major investment in upgrading car parking and other facilities at the station. The county council would be engaging local residents more fully in the conversation.

The Cabinet Member Environment and Planning, County Councillor Moor highlighted the issues with parking at the train station in Cheltenham. Parking represented a very controversial issue, but there was no lack of commitment from the county to address them. Meetings would be taking place with the Leader and other district council leaders about keeping parking manageable.

In terms of the town’s Arle Court Park and Ride, Mr Williams said that there was no easy solution to stop employees from local businesses parking for free there. This was a cause for concern for residents and commuters due to the resulting lack of availability of spaces. It was clear that this was damaging the intended purpose of park and ride.  Mr Williams explained however, that discussions had been taking place with parking and transport technology companies and one idea had been suggested in which users of the car park would be required to enter their car registration on a machine which would issue a ticket to validate the vehicle.  He highlighted that park and ride-both at the racecourse and Arle Court was a JCS commitment to enhance public transport with a target of 10% reduction in journeys made by car.  Investment had been made in the Stagecoach service aimed at fast and frequent services from Arle Court to the town centre. He then highlighted that an air quality task group had been set up at county level to try and address issues at source as part of the Government air quality strategy

The following issues were raised by Members :

• Inadequate parking at GCHQ meant that staff were parking in residential areas causing “parking wars”
• St Peters - between the railway station and the West End - disappointed with answers and residents angry. A Member explained that there had been more than one piece of correspondence on the issues and cited at least five occasions when he had corresponded with the county. Residents were concerned with the displacement of parking in the Waitrose area and station area into St Marks. It was suggested that a public meeting should be held to listen to residents’ concerns.
• Whilst he was aware that the process took some time, a commitment was sought that adjustments be made to the TRO process in the existing areas in St Peters. Members of the public had attended the O&S meeting in April demonstrating the level of public concern.
• Reference to the strategy,-,doesn’t feel in Cheltenham that there is a strategy,-,parking zones were causing much angst. How could these problems be overcome in the future?
• A Member referred to the point made by Mr Williams on electric vehicles and the potential to reduce the cost those drivers paid for parking generally. This could cause equality issues, since those drivers were generally wealthier, yet parking permit zones were being introduced into more affluent areas.

Mr Williams explained that ideally there would be one big scheme, however parking schemes came at a significant cost and it was necessary to implement them where the problem was most acute. The time it took to introduce zones takes significant resource. Looking more analytically, in the town centre parking was highly controlled, yet further out there was more of a balance in favour of residents. The hospital and GCHQ distorted the picture, but the intention was to use funding creatively to manage traffic and parking at source as the issues could not be solved by looking at displacement.

Further issues raised by Members were as follows :

• The issue of business parking permits being sold, particularly in St Lukes and used all day by commuters was raised as it was having an impact on residents’ parking and causing issues for the most vulnerable. A review of the business permit scheme would be welcome. Mr Williams explained that a change was proposed from paper to electronic permits to enable the scheme to be enforced.

• Was there a post implementation review of each phase as it was introduced? In response, Mr Williams explained that more post implementation work should be done, but currently the team monitored the problems by the level of correspondence received. The level of review had to be kept manageable and it was important to see the scale of the changes proposed in order to identify the best approach. The Leader of CBC and of other district councils formed part of the process.
• Visitor vouchers - Mr Williams explained that the right number varied according to location and it was not necessarily easy to get it right for the whole town. The visitor voucher scheme was changed 7 years ago and the policy limited the number to 50 per household. In order to review the policy again, there would need to be an understanding of the number and duration of visitor vouchers and review if a consistent number should be applied to all residential parking zones. He highlighted however, that parking and demand on the use of the road would change over 10 years and this may provide a better opportunity to review and consider requests. It was a question of managing expectations.
• TRO process - a Member commented that this was limited, expensive and inflexible once the TRO was in place. He made reference to the TRO in force during race week, where parking had been at a dangerous level. In his view, there should be a more flexible approach and where traffic conditions changed, road conditions should change. In response, Mr Williams acknowledged that it was a cumbersome process, but that it was legally prescribed. He had challenged his staff about the flexibility that could be offered.
• Members commended the helpful, prompt responses to emails received from the parking team at GCC.
• Parking issues around GCHQ and strategic JCS development plans in west and north-west Cheltenham.
• Parking and strategic travel plans. In response Mr Williams explained that he and the Director of Planning, Tracey Crews, had met with GCHQ to reinvigorate joint working to coordinate planning related and operational management of parking.  He informed that County Council highways, the developer at West Cheltenham and the borough council were coordinating transport infrastructure informed by the work of the JCS in terms of strategic parameters and modelling. Ensuring high strategic level discussions would inform delivery on the ground. A review of the local transport strategy would commence in the next few months.

Mr Williams referred to the county council strategic priorities in its Medium Term Financial Strategy and highlighted that there were finite resources. It was therefore necessary to be strict where time and money was spent. The criteria were how deliverable would a scheme be and was there a consensus? The focus had to be in places with most demand and where managing parking issues would benefit people and help the economy of the town, as well as keeping roads moving and encouraging sustainable transport. He recognised the issues and the tensions, but improving something which was largely right was at the opportunity cost of doing nothing in an area with an untackled problem.

Mr Williams undertook to provide full responses to the more strategic questions and circulate to all Members subsequent to the meeting.