Contact Officer: Mathew Metcalfe

Tel: 01865 252214, email: mmetcalfe@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of Law and Governance submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) following a call-in by the Chair of the Value and Performance Scrutiny Committee of the decision by the City Executive Board held on 12^th September 2012 concerning Parking in Parks Review.  An extract from the minutes of this meeting plus additional information concerning income and penalties was also submitted.

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting and outlined the reasons for the call-in that should have been taken into consideration when the original decision was taken:

(i)         The impact on neighbouring areas;

(ii)        The balance between revenue from charges and penalties;

(iii)       Whether there are other factors in play which might be distorting the comparison of user numbers.

The Committee had invited local residents to attend the meeting to give information on the affect of the charges in their neighbourhoods.  A number of residents had chose to submit details in writing (appended to these minutes) while others who had also submitted responses in advance (details appended to these minutes) chose to come to the meeting and address the Committee.

Suzanne McIvor, from the Harbord Road Area Residents’ Association spoke and highlighted the following:

(i)         Main cause of the problems in Harbord Road was the charging for parking in Cutteslowe Park;

(ii)        Parked cars blocking resident’s driveways;

(iii)       Informed that a review was to be funded by the Council and did not understand why this had not taken place;

(iv)       Complaints made to both City and County Councillors;

(v)        No thought had been given to the wider issues before the charging had been introduced.

Barbara Hossier a local resident spoke and highlighted the following:

(i)         Cars were parking on both sides of the road turning the road into a single track;

(ii)        Residents were unable to reverse out of their driveways because of the parking;

(iii)       The issue was made worse during the weekends, school holidays and days when events took place in the park;

(iv)       A white line in front of resident’s driveways along with a single yellow line on the road would help the situation;

(v)        Large vehicles including many Council vehicles used the road to access the park.

Following the presentations by the local residents, the Committee debated the call-in reasons and the issues raised by the residents.  Comments raised included:

·                    Parking got worse since the introduction of the charges;

·                    County had proposed a scheme which was to restrictive to residents and so a new proposal was being worked on;

·                    The Park was not used by commuters;

·                    Nearly £10k had been raised from penalties, but only £2k from charges;

·                    An hour free parking would help the situation;

·                    Council had to introduce charges due to the cut in grant funding from Central Government;

·                    County Councillors could use the Area Stewardship/Locality Funding to help the situation;

·                    There is a displacement problem and it was clear this had been taken into consideration by the City Executive Board;

·                    Cutteslowe seems to have a particular problem;

·                    City Council underspent in 2011/12 by £500k and some of this should have been used to ease the problems such as a free first hour.

Councillor Colin Cook, Board Member, City Development attended the meeting as his portfolio included car parks.  He said that charging had to be introduced to balance the budget due to the cut in Government funding.  He highlighted that only 2 complaints had been received by the Council and 3 by the Police, although 2 of the 3 received by the Police were in the previous year.  He said that the money raised from these charges helped the Council to provide front line services.  The Council was no longer in a position to provide some services free of charge.  He added that the charges formed part of the Councils budget which was being cut year on year and he hoped that the City Council could work with the County Council on the parking issues as the County Council was the enforcing authority.

The Committee agreed:

(a)       To disagree with the call-in.

(b)       To recommend the City Executive Board:

(1)               To allocate additional funding to allow for improved signage at the car parks adjacent to Parks, better explaining the charges;

(2)       To continue to monitor the charges and to undertake a review with the next six months.

(c)        The Value and Performance Scrutiny Committee to revisit the issue, six months form the date of this meeting.