Issue - decisions

Cabinet considered the report of the head of economy, leisure and property.  This reviewed the council’s car park fees and charges and set out options for 2014/15. 

Cabinet considered:

• reducing the price of parking permits – Cabinet decided against this option at this time;
• extending the length of free parking to three hours – given the scale of the cost to the council, Cabinet rejected this option at this time;
• extending the differential pricing policy so that car park fees were varied depending on their location – Cabinet considered that the existing pricing schedule included differential pricing and was working effectively and therefore extending differential pricing further was unnecessary;
• reducing the cost of excess charges (parking fines) – Cabinet agreed to reduce the cost from £50 to £40 if the fine was paid within 10 working days.  Although this would reduce income from excess charges, the council should not rely of this income;
• introducing a cashless payment system in car parks (pay by mobile phone) – Cabinet asked the officers to investigate this through a pilot scheme as soon as possible.  If successful, this would be introduced in the council’s car parks;
• introducing spaces to charge electric vehicles – Cabinet noted the provision for this in other car parks and agreed to not introduce spaces for electric vehicle charging at this time.  

Cabinet approved the fees and charges for 2014/15 in line with its decisions above. 

RESOLVED: to

(a)       approve the car park fees and charges for 2014/15 as set out in appendix 1 to the report, subject to reducing the cost of excess charge notices (parking fines) to £40 if paid within 10 working days; and

(b)       carry out a pilot scheme of cashless payments for car parking.