Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Wilkinson and Yabsley.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 6 September 2021 (circulated previously) be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

(a)  Consultation on Changes to Link Services in North Devon

Councillor Worden encouraged Members of the Committee to respond to  Devon County Council’s consultation on changes to the Link Services in North Devon if they had not done so already.

(b)  Informal Briefing

He requested that Group Leaders remain behind following the conclusion of the formal Committee meeting.

(Please telephone the Corporate and Community Services team to prepare a form for your signature before the meeting.  Interests must be re-declared when the item is called, and Councillors must leave the room if necessary).

There were no declarations of interest received.

Report by Parking Manager (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Parking Manager (circulated previously) regarding a review of oversized vehicle parking.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive highlighted the following:

·       A review had been undertaken following a notice of motion presented to Council on 26 September 2018 by Councillor Tucker requesting officers to look at the issue of enforcing larger vehicles overhanging bays and whether there was a justification in an increase of the number of oversized bays or the relining of all existing car parks to accommodate.

·       The Parking Manager had reviewed the data over the past 2 years following work that had been commenced by the previous Parking Manager.

·       The occupancy of all car parks across Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and South Molton had been and continued to be currently very high especially in light of increased visitor numbers to the area through a much longer seasonal period.  This trend was expected to continue. 

·       A schedule of planned works and maintenance that required immediate attention had been discussed by the Parking Manager and Property Maintenance Officer in September 2021. This had identified a need for some oversized bay parking in a small number of Council car parks but was not considered a high priority at this time. It was not viable to add larger bays in all NDC car parks as there was not capacity for this.

·       These planned works needed to be undertaken in a pragmatic manner.

·       An analysis of penalty charge notices issued between January 2018 and September 2021 had been carried out.  The data had shown that a small percentage of all penalty charge notices issued were for not parking correctly within the markings of a bay or space.

·       The current data showed that there was not a significant enough issue to justify the cost of relining all parking bays. Doing so throughout all car parks would result in losing a substantial amount of car parking. An example being Ilfracombe where this would exacerbate the issues already present due to demand exceeding supply in these car parks.

·       Provision for oversized vehicles in towns within the North Devon District area already existed. Larger bays were currently offered at Barnstaple – Bear Street, North Walk and Seven Brethren Lorry/Van Park Ilfracombe – Brookdale and Hillsborough South Molton – South Molton Central and Lorry Park.

·       There was a need to improve signage to advise of the larger bays available in those car parks.

·       A number of new projects being delivered involved the provision of car parking and with the early involvement with the Parking, Property and Technical teams could provide opportunities to identify potential areas for larger parking bays and needed to be considered as part of the wider strategy.

In response to questions, the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive and Parking Manager advised the following:

·       The Civil Enforcement Officers advised car park users of any potential contraventions in the first instance with a “warning” notice, followed by a penalty charge notice if the vehicle was in contravention again.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

Report by Sustainability and Climate Officer (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Sustainability and Climate Officer (circulated previously) regarding the revised Environmental Policy.

Councillor Lofthouse, Lead Member for Climate Change presented the revised Environmental Policy to the Committee.

RESOLVED that the revised Environmental Policy be endorsed.

To consider formulating a response to the consultation by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on the powers of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Chief Executive advised the Committee that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was carrying out consultation of the powers of the Police and Crime Commissioner.  A link to the consultation had been previously circulated to the Committee.  The Police and Crime Commissioner statutory powers were similar to those powers given to Local Authorities’ prior to 2011 i.e. specific powers set in legislation or directly incidental to powers and their functions. The Government’s view was that these powers were too restrictive.  Consultation was being undertaken on two options:

(1)  Police and Crime Commissioner to have a general power of competence (same as Local Authorities’)

(2)  Police and Crime Commissioner to have a wider functional power of competence (similar to Fire Authorities’)

He advised that the consultation would end on 27 October 2021 and that Local Authorities’ were being invited to submit a response.  He recommended that the Council’s response to the consultation was to put forward that the Police and Crime Commissioner have a wider functional power of competence as there was a need for Local Authorities to continue to work as a partner.  Other Local Authorities were also supporting this option.

RESOLVED that the response to the consultation on the powers of the Police and Crime Commissioner put forward that the Council strongly disagrees with the Police and Crime Commissioner having a general power of competence.