Agenda item - Bromsgrove District Council Car Parks - Adoption of Cashless Payments and Operational Procedures for Recreation Road South Car Park and Churchfields Multi-Storey Car Park - pre-scrutiny

Agenda item

Bromsgrove District Council Car Parks - Adoption of Cashless Payments and Operational Procedures for Recreation Road South Car Park and Churchfields Multi-Storey Car Park - pre-scrutiny

(Report to follow)

 

 

Minutes:

The Chairman invited Councillor K. May, who was in attendance in her role as Portfolio Holder for Economic Development, Regeneration and Strategic Partnerships, to present the Bromsgrove District Council Car Parks - Adoption of Cashless Payments and Operational Procedures for Recreation Road South Car Park and Churchfields Multi-Storey Car Park report. In doing so, the Board were informed that it was recommended that all Pay and Display car parks within the Town Centre were to adopt a cashless payment system. It was confirmed that in addition to the cashless payment option all car parks, except for Churchfields Multi-storey Car Park would retain one machine that would still accept cash payments. Members were advised that the decision to not have a machine that accepted cash payments at the Churchfields Muti-Storey car park was as a result of anti-social behaviour that had previously been experienced at this site.

 

The Environmental Services Manager, Mr. K. Hirons was welcomed to meeting to provide further information regarding the report to the Board. During which the following was highlighted for Members’ attention:

 

·       That the negotiations with a third party to take over the running and maintenance of the Recreation Road South Car Park had not been successful.

·       The Mi Permit app had been introduced within the Town’s car parks in 2021. This had provided flexibility to shoppers who visited the Town Centre.

·       A full Equality Impact Assessment had been undertaken by the Council and the results of the survey had shown that 62% of users would use a cashless payment option and that 38% of users would not. This had resulted in the decision that a cash payment option be retained in most car parks and therefore minimise the potential discrimination for certain groups.

·       The benefit of the introduction of cashless payments would allow the Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) within the District to undertake more of their normal enforcement duties as they would be able to check on the viability of each vehicles’ parking period electronically rather than having to visually inspect tickets which was the current process. It was also reported that a cost saving of £10.5k on cash collections and £4.5k on the cost of ticket supplies would be made by the Council as a result of these changes.

 

Following the presentation there was a detailed debate regarding the implementation of cashless payments and the potential impact on the residents within the District and further afield. Although Members welcomed the report there was some concern expressed regarding the lack of availability of cash payments at the Churchfields Multi-Storey Car Park and that this might preclude some visitors from using the car park. In addition to this it was considered that it might be considered unfair to have a cheaper payment of a £3 all day parking fee at the Churchfields Multi-Storey Car Park when using the Mi Permit app whilst the remaining car parks charged £5 for all day parking. Some Members wished to explore the possibility of keeping a cash payment option within this car park for those who were unable to use the Mi Permit app.

 

During the debate heritage street lighting within the Town Centre was discussed at length and some Members queried whether there would be a consistent approach in respect of the replacement of heritage street lighting in the future. It was explained to Members that the street lighting within the boundary of the heritage area of the town centre would be replaced by heritage street lighting however this would not be the case of street lighting outside of the heritage boundary.

 

During consideration of this item the following was also discussed by Members:

 

·       Solar powered parking machines – Although some Members were pleased that some of the parking machines would be solar powered there was some concern that not all of them would be. Officers confirmed that the reason for this was that when making card payments a large battery charge was required and after looking at other Local Authorities who had opted to use solar powered parking machinesit was discovered that these kinds of machines were not always consistently reliable.

·       The resale price of the old machines that were no longer needed - it was reported that it was difficult to estimate what the potential resale price would be as this was dependent on market need.

·       The sum of investment for the Council would be £1m over the next 4 years, with £250k of that amount being spent by the end of the 2021/22 Financial Year

·       Life-expectancy of the replacement machines – although it was difficult to provide a definitive life-expectancy of the new machines it was hoped that this would be 10 years.

 

As a result of consideration of the report, Councillor R. Hunter proposed the following amendment to the recommendation, which was seconded by Councillor P. McDonald:

 

That in addition to the cashless payment option at Churchfields Multi-Storey Car Park a cash payment option also be made available to the users of the car park.

 

Officers confirmed to Members that this proposal would increase costs at the Churchfields site and that the cost of installing two machines was £10k. In addition to this, any resulting costs of the installation of two machines would be higher due to the ongoing maintenance or if one or both machines were subject to vandalism.

 

On being put to the vote the recommendation was lost.

 

In respect of the discussion regarding heritage lighting Councillor R. Hunter proposed a recommendation as follows:

 

When any heritage street lighting within the town centre was replaced, it was replaced with the same heritage style lighting.

 

This proposed recommendation was not seconded.

 

Councillor K. May suggested that it might be useful to have a heritage lighting discussion at a future meeting of the Finance and Budget Working Group. This was agreed by the Chairman and the item would be added to the Finance and Budget Working Group work programme.

 

RESOLVED that the Bromsgrove District Council Car Parks - Adoption of Cashless Payments and Operational Procedures for Recreation Road South Car Park and Churchfields Multi-Storey Car Park be noted.

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