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. However if the car park user was causing an obstruction, then a penalty charge notice would be issued. Car park users were also advised of the location of larger parking bays.

·       A review of signage in car parks and signage when driving into the town centres was already underway.

·       A list of the number and location of oversized parking spaces would be provided to Members.

RESOLVED:

(a)   That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)   That a further report be brought back to the Committee at the appropriate time to determine priorities on the future strategy of car parking in North Devon including asset utilisation, signage, pricing and options for customers to pay for parking usage.