Agenda item

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources proposing to review and update the current car park tariffs and car park zoning across the City.

80.1    The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources, Councillor Hannah Norman explained that the report proposed to review and update the current car park tariffs and car parking zoning across the city. Councillor Norman advised Members that a change had been made to the report following advice from the Monitoring Officer, who had confirmed that this was a Cabinet decision and that any recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be debated by Cabinet on 11^th January.

80.2    Councillor Norman confirmed that the council understood the importance of car parking sites to the development of the city. She noted that the last amendment to the City Centre car park tariffs took place back in 2017, and that over the last five years the Retail Prices Index (RPI) had increased by 28.5% and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) had increased by 18.5%. As a result of these inflationary increases and the increased costs of staffing, cleaning and ongoing maintenance, Councillor Norman confirmed that the council needed to increase car parking charges.

80.3    Councillor Norman advised Members that the Car Parking Tariff Review had led to the proposed amendments to the car park tariffs which if approved would lead to the standardisation of parking charges across the car parks in the current parking Zones 1 and 2, and the removal of the 1-hour tariff to encourage longer stays by visitors to the city centre. She noted that parking charges for council owned car parks were still considerably cheaper than privately owned car parks, even with the proposed increases. Councillor Norman thanked officers for undertaking detailed analysis, and confirmed that much of this modelling had taken place during the challenging period of recovery from the cyber incident.

80.4    The Chair thanked Councillor Norman for the report and acknowledged that there was a tension between encouraging visitors to travel into the city centre and meeting the City Council’s net zero aspirations.

80.5    Councillor Wilson referred to the proposed Car Parking Tariffs in Appendix 1 and observed that the proposed tariff increase for residents parking for 1 hour or less would be significantly higher than the other bands. He asked whether thought had been given to a more moderate increase across the bands. Councillor Norman confirmed that during their analysis, officers had considered data from authorities with a similar size and economic make up to Gloucester and that many authorities did not provide a 1-hour parking option. She noted that the proposed removal of the 1-hour tariff might provide visitors with an incentive to make other retail visits.

80.6    In response to further comments from Councillor Wilson regarding 1-hour tariff options still being offered by some authorities including Cheltenham and Worcester, the Director of Policy and Resources confirmed that Worcester City Council were also intending to review their car parking tariff banding.

80.7    In response to an additional question from Councillor Wilson regarding on-street parking provision from Gloucestershire County Council, Councillor Norman confirmed that short stay on-street parking was available in designated areas if residents needed to make a short visit to the city centre, and residents also had the option to use public transport as an alternative means of travelling into the city.

80.8    The Chair asked whether there was an option to change the car parking tariffs before the biennial review in the event that the new car parking tariffs had an adverse impact. Councillor Norman confirmed that the decision could be reviewed at any time. She advised Members that car parking data was reviewed on a monthly basis and that this data would also be assessed as part of the routine quarterly financial monitoring reviews which would ascertain whether there were any changes to income.

80.9    Councillor Pullen asked whether the council had consulted with car park users, residents, and local businesses. Councillor Norman explained that the council had not undertaken a consultation exercise. She reiterated that the council had not made amendments to car park tariffs since 2017 and that with the increased costs of staffing and materials as a by-product of the cost-of-living crisis, the increases were necessary if the council wanted to continue investing in the maintenance of city centre car parks and implanting changes such as increase electric car charging points.

80.10  Councillor Pullen commented that he was surprised that no consultation exercise had taken place. He asked for further information on the analysis which had been undertaken on the removal of the 1-hour tariff and asked whether officers had allowed for a decrease in income should the number of visitors making use of the car parks decrease. Councillor Norman confirmed that modelling undertaken by officers had been modest, and a decrease in car parking usage as a result of individuals choosing not to use council owned car parks because of the tariff increase had been taken into account during this analysis. The Director of Policy and Resources further confirmed that this risk had been taken into account.

80.11  Councillor Dee asked whether consideration had been given to removing zones entirely and standardising the car parking tariffs for all council owned car parks. Councillor Norman explained that zones had been created to reflect car park popularity. She noted that the analysis had shown a negligible difference between Zone 1 and 2 in terms of usage and the report therefore proposed to combine these into a single zone, however the car parks in Zone 3 were still outliers and there was phased pricing to reflect this.

80.12  In response to a further question from Councillor Dee regarding the opportunity for increased revenue if the tariffs across all car parks were standardised, Councillor Norman noted her concern that this might stop visitors from utilising car parks in the current Zone 3. She confirmed that she would not rule our future changes but felt that the recommendations in the report were a reasonable set of changes.

80.13  Councillor Hilton queried whether the changes would come into effect from the 11^th January if Cabinet accepted the recommendations, or whether they would come into force on 1^st April 2023. Councillor Norman confirmed that they would come into effect from 1^st April.

80.14  Councillor Hilton referred to the narrative at 9.3 in the report and asked how confident the council was that the proposed changes would generate the estimated £125k. The Director of Policy and Resources responded that this figure was based on the analysis of the information officers had access to at the time and was based on the best estimate. He noted that the monthly data reports would monitor the situation and any adverse effects, however these were not expected.

80.15  In response to a further query from Councillor Hilton as to whether Members could make amendments to the Council Budget to adjust the proposed fees and charges if they felt it necessary, Councillor Norman confirmed that the option to make suggested changes to the budget ahead of the full Council meeting in February was open to opposition parties. She also noted that the Finance team were happy to meet with Group Leaders to discuss any proposed budget amendments.

80.16  Councillor Hilton asked whether the City Council had consulted with Gloucestershire County Council on the proposed tariff increases. Councillor Norman confirmed her understanding that a formal consultation with the County Council had not taken place, however she noted the County Council did not consult with the City Council when taking decisions around their parking provision. It was her view that the number of visitors opting not to use City Council car parking would be limited as they were still the cheapest car parks in Gloucester.

80.17  Councillor Durdey expressed the view that the increase in tariff from 1-hour was a modest one and that visitors who were minded to shop in Cheltenham instead would need to weigh up fuel costs for travel compared with parking locally. He asked for clarification as to how often the new tariffs would be reviewed. Councillor Norman commented that there officers may have been keen to review the tariffs more regularly on an annual basis, the administration had previously been reluctant to review parking charges however with the rising inflation costs, it was now necessary.

80.18  The Chair suggested that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee request an update on the impact of the proposed tariff increase. A discussion ensued and Councillor Norman confirmed that she would be happy to accept a recommendation to include a specific paragraph on the impact of the car parking tariff increase in future quarterly Financial Monitoring reports.

RESOLVED that the Overview & Scrutiny Committee RECOMMENDS that:

(1)  Additional narrative be added to future quarterly Financial Monitoring reports on car parking usage and income performance following the proposed car park tariff increase.