Agenda item

Town Centre Car Parking

Decision:

a) That Members approve the proposals set out in the report and authorise officers to take the necessary steps to implement:

I. initiatives 2, 3 and 4 on a six-month trial basis commencing 1 October 2013, including liaison with the Town Centre Partnership, and;

II. initiative 1 in consultation with the County Council, as soon as practically possible.

b) That Members note the decision taken to accept the proposals from Bemrose Booth Mobile to implement on a 12-month trial basis the three initiatives described in the report and to accept the related Grant offer.

c) That the financial implications of the trial upon the Council’s revenue and capital budgets be met from the Bemrose Booth Mobile grant offer, as set out in the report.

d) That the balance of the Bemrose Booth Mobile grant offer be retained to support any ongoing urgent repair/maintenance works of the former St. Giles and St. Georges School Building.

e) That in respect of initiative 2 the trial be established with the understanding that the Town Centre Partnership would work with local businesses to develop the refund element of the double ticketing scheme.

f) That Members urge the Town Centre Partnership to establish a retail index scheme to monitor trade in order to evaluate any improvements in, and/or displacement of, trade.

g) That officers report back to Cabinet with an evaluation of the trial as soon as practically possible after the end of the 6-month trial period.

h) That officers seek to agree with Cabinet Members the most appropriate approach to consulting stakeholders on the matters referred to in this report.

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Jonathan Mitchell, Chair of the Town Centre Partnership and Glenda Miller from Knights Solicitors to the meeting.

A report was submitted to inform Cabinet of the outcome of a scrutiny review process and subsequent member discussions that considered a range of options to introduce changes to the car parking fees and charges regime in an attempt to generate greater footfall in the town centre with the express aim of improving its economic fortunes.

Recommendations from the Economic Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee had identified three initiates for Cabinet to consider:

Cashless Parking
Pay on Foot System
Free parking after 2pm on Thursdays

A 4^th initiative had since been added called Nipper Parking, which was 30 minutes free parking, generally near to the centre of the town to allow customers to ‘nip’ in and out of the town.

Consideration was also being given to increasing the number of free parking days in the town by 5, these days would be agreed in liaison with the Town Centre Partnership. Double ticketing had also been discussed whereby vouchers would be dispensed along with the ticket to spend in certain shops or get the cost of the ticket refunded. A free trial of number plate recognition software was also due to be carried out at no expense to the Council.

It was stated that following the implementation of some or all of these initiatives there would need to be careful monitoring to asses what if any impact they had on the footfall in the town centre.

Mr Mitchell stated that it was vital to increase the footfall in the town centre and enhance its vibrancy and that this had to be done by addressing every aspect of the town centre and getting some momentum going. Miss Miller thanked Cabinet for the invitation to the meeting and hoped that further invites would be made in the future. Miss Miller stated that the regeneration of the town centre was a very emotive subject and that it was agreed by many retailers that parking was indeed critical to the vibrancy of the town. Miss Miller did however state that other initiatives could not be overshadowed by the parking questions and that there were many other areas that needed to be addressed.

The Leader agreed that other initiatives needed to be examined but that at present it was thought that parking was an area that could be addressed immediately and hopefully help to provide data that could be fed into other initiatives. The Borough Council hoped to set the tone of its future work with the partnership by showing that it was wiling to trial new initiatives that could benefit the Borough as a whole and was not afraid to invest money where a case for investment could be proven.

Mr Mitchell stated that Newcastle under Lyme needed to be a destination town and that car parking was just one element that was needed to make this happen.

Mr Mitchell extended an invitation to Cabinet Members to attend a future meeting of the Town Centre Partnership. The Leader thanked Mr Mitchell and the Town Centre Partnership for the work they were carrying out.

Resolved: