Issue - meetings

To give consideration to the proposed car parking charge scales.

The Committee considered a report on Cheshire East Parking Management: tariff structure options and a general update on car parking initiatives. The report was presented by the Parking Services Manager and Head of Community Services.

Several non-committee Members had attended the meeting wishing to address the Committee regarding this item and the Chairman allowed each to speak before the Officers presented the report and the Committee had their discussion.

Councillor Domleo attended the meeting as Ward Member for Congleton West to address the concerns of several Congleton residents who had attended the meeting regarding car parking in Congleton. He stated that parking charges are a sensitive issue in Congleton but wanted to reassure the public that this was not about an increase in charges it was about Cheshire East’s tariff structure. However he did state that there was no shortage of spaces in Congleton and raising charges would only result in a decrease in town centre use.

Councillor Saunders wanted to echo what Councillor Domleo had stated and added that car parks should be charged on an individual basis as most towns and villages have their own individual identities and attractions and one size doesn’t fit all. Uniform tariffs would not be appropriate to use in both urban and rural areas and the differences between each area are not covered by the limited tariff options. The vitality of Towns and Villages should be the number one priority when setting charges and the vitality should not be effected by poorly thought out charges.

Councillor Louise Brown disputed the rating of Macclesfield in Appendix 2 of the report suggesting that Macclesfield’s current situation did not warrant charging its car parks on an A ranking. She stated that other towns currently had a better offer to customers but lower charges than Macclesfield town centre and that was a detriment to Macclesfield. She was concerned about the way in which towns and villages had been classified and suggested that this needed re-examining to ensure that car parking charges were appropriate to the offer of the area.

Councillor Murray suggested that charges should be specific to each car park and what they offer to customers. He also stated that charges in one area will affect the surrounding areas and this should be taken into consideration when developing charges. Economic Vitality should be the only determinant of car park charges and each individual area needed looking at more closely.

Councillor Livesley stated that local members should be involved in setting local charges because they have useful knowledge of the towns and village they represent.

The Parking Service Manager gave an overview of the report. Section 5 of the report contained descriptions of various initiatives that were being considered and piloted by the Council in order to improve the parking service for customers. These included paying tariffs by phone or card, automatic number plate recognition and retailer linked parking promotions. The objective of the tariff restructure was to harmonize the structures that Cheshire East had inherited from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 167