Issue - meetings

The Panel is invited to comment on the Civil Parking Enforcement Update Report.

Executive Councillor: S Taylor

By means of a report by the Operations Manager (a copy of which was appended in the Minute Book) the Civil Parking Enforcement Update report was presented to the Panel.

Following a question from Councillor Alban, the Panel heard that due to the geographic nature, there is an increase in costs to enforce parking in rural areas, however a balance would be found to maintain compliance and enforcement. The Panel also heard that an ongoing relationship with members flagging areas of concern would be critical to the maintenance of this balance. In response to a further question from Councillor Alban, the Panel heard that due to the geographical reach of Cambridgeshire it is not viable for teams from Cambridge to travel into the rural areas to enforce parking, therefore HDC were supporting their rural neighbours, in particular Fenland.

The Panel heard that a communications plan would be implemented as part of the project to ensure awareness in both members and residents. Councillor Bywater commented that the timing of these communications would be key and observed that seasonal timings, such as school holidays, be taken into consideration as part of the plan.

The Panel were advised, in response to questions from Councillors Burke and Shaw, that modelling had been informed by professional associates and that HDC had benchmarked against similar rural districts for anticipated costs incurred and anticipated compliance. The Panel were further advised that by law, Civil Parking Enforcement could not make a surplus and that any surplus achieved must be ringfenced to transport projects. A balance would be struck between enforcement and compliance, and also that no targets would be set as ideally there should not be a need to issue enforcements. The Panel  were also assured that the limit on generating a surplus income would not limit the quantity of notices issued.

Councillor Hunt enquired whether the anticipated General Election posed a threat to the timeline of the project, the Panel were assured that the risk had been noted however, the application would be classed as regular business therefore not anticipated to be an issue.

Further to a question from Councillor Alban regarding information on other authorities and what surplus others encountered, the Panel were assured that this was not a money generating exercise and that the model was comparable to similar rural authorities. The Panel were further advised that this was publicly available information and would be shared with the Panel following the meeting.

The Panel praised an excellent report and were advised that an annual report on progress would be fed through the democratic cycle in due course.

Following the discussion, it was

RESOLVED

that the comments of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel be passed to Cabinet for their consideration when making a decision upon the recommendations contained within the report.