Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor M Hardy

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest

To provide an opportunity for Members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no whipping declarations

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note: In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public contacted the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting to provide brief details of the matter to be covered.

There were no members of the public present wishing to speak

To give consideration to the call in of the above decision

The procedure for the Call In of the decision taken on 23 February 2015 relating to the Car Parking Consolidation Order 2015 was circulated to the Committee.

On behalf of the 8 Members who had signed the Call In, Councillor S Hogben addressed the Committee and expanded on the following reasons for the Call In:

·         Inadequate consultation.

·         Relevant information was not considered.

·         Justification for the decision was open to challenge on the basis of the evidence considered.

With regard to the consultation process, Cllr Hogben had previously indicated that he wished to attend a focus group that had been established, to address his concerns regarding Crewe car parks. However, he was not invited to attend any meetings and was unclear as to whether or not any meetings had taken place, therefore, he suggested that the consultation process was flawed.

With regard to car parks in Pedley Street and Railway Street in Crewe, Cllr Hogben suggested that there were cheaper, privately owned car parks that were also in better condition.

He then went onto highlight errors within the covering report and questioned the accuracy of the financial implications, particularly in relation to Christchurch and Crewe Alexandra car parks.

Finally he suggested that car parking charges should remain unchanged until a new Car Parking Strategy had been introduced and parking in the Borough could be looked at in its entirety.

Councillor Topping, Portfolio Holder for Service Commissioning outlined the decision taken on 23 February 2015, referring to the report summary and highlighting the desire for car parking to be cost neutral. This would be achieved through a phased approach and any schemes that were not successful would be reviewed. A Car Parking Strategy would be implemented in the summer of 2015, which the New Delivery Vehicles and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee could be involved in developing.

In response to the suggestion that there had been inadequate consultation, he assured the Committee that all statutory consultation  requirements had taken place and that a focus group was in addition to this. However he was unable to clarify whether or not the focus group had met and apologised for the confusion.

Furthermore, Councillor Topping suggested that, for clarification purposes, he would be willing to amend paragraph 1.2.1 of his report to read ‘this is still cheaper than major recognised non Council owned car parks’.

The Committee considered the report, evidence it had received and response to the Call In and agreed that subject to Councillor Toppings offer to amend the wording of the report, the Committee would offer no advice, therefore the decision could be implemented immediately.

RESOLVED

That in response to the call In, the Committee offers no advice to the Portfolio Holder for Service Commissioning regarding his decision on Car Parking Consolidation Order 2015.