Agenda item

The copy of the presentation for this item is to follow in a Supplementary Papers Pack.

A presentation was delivered by the Environmental Services Manager on the scrutiny investigation proposal relating to the Council’s policy regarding parking for Blue Badge holders on council parks.

Information was provided on the current system for Blue Badge holders parking and the projections for possible loss of income if the Council offered free parking to Blue Badge holders. It was stated that currently Blue Badge holders paid for their car parking but received an additional hour of free parking on the Council’s pay and display car parks. The process was that Blue Badge holders would purchase a ticket from the ticket machine in the usual way and display the ticket alongside their Blue Badge on the dashboard. The parking attendants would then allow an additional hour to the expiry time of the ticket. The same principle applied when parking was purchased via the ‘my permit’ app.

Members were informed that in all council car parks in the District there was a mix of disabled and normal parking bays and in all car parks the Council tried to accommodate at least six per cent of all bays as disabled bays. In total, there were 65 disabled spaces out of 975 parking spaces in Bromsgrove’s off-street car parks, which equated to 6.7 per cent of all spaces.

It was reported that information about the number of Blue Badge holders using the pay and display car parks was limited because the pay and display machines did not record the difference between the blue badge holder and the general user when the parking ticket was being bought. Alternative methods were therefore used to estimate the current income derived from Blue Badge holders’ use of council car parks.

A survey was undertaken for one hour period every day for 616 days, recording the customers parking in the disabled bays and displaying Blue Badge, noting the ticket value per purchase to provide an indication of how long they stayed. An income figure was provided for the vehicles parked in disabled bays during survey times and after extrapolating this data to be based on 8 hour days for 365 days a year an annual income figure of £19,939 per year was derived.

A second method of assessing the income was to look at the number of available display disabled bays expressed as a percentage of the total number of spaces (which was 6.7 per cent of the total bays available) Taking the total budgeted income from all the car parks in Bromsgrove (£1,136,402) and calculating 6.7 per cent of this figure provided a possible income in the region of £76,000 per year from Blue Badge holders. It was highlighted, however, that this was also only an estimate.

It was stated that based on these two estimates to offer free disabled parking could cost Bromsgrove District Council anything between £20,000 and £76,000 per year. For budgeting purposes, a realistic figure was more likely to be between an average of those two figures meaning a potential loss of at least £48,000 per year to be planned within the budget. It was highlighted that this was just an estimate as Officers were unable to count every single car entering or exiting the car parks.

Following the presentation, Members were invited to ask questions and raise comments. Councillor R. Hunter addressed the Committee and in doing so thanked Officers for collating a more up-to-date set of data on Blue Badge holders parking. It was commented that given the total annual income derived from council car parks was around £1.1 million, the costs associated with offering free Blue Badge parking, if taking into account the average figure provided in the presentation above, only amounted to roughly 5 per cent of the total annual income from council car parks. Additionally, it was noted that presently Blue Badge holders were allowed to park on double yellow lines for free. Given this, it was commented that people would likely be choosing to park on double yellow lines instead of council car parks. It was also observed that all the neighbouring local authorities offered free parking to Blue Badge holders and Bromsgrove was an outlier in this regard. A question was raised regarding whether any estimates could be provided as to the average occupancy rates of disabled bays across Bromsgrove’s council car parks, especially any indication of whether these bays were used to capacity.

The Leader of the Council was invited to respond to the observations and questions above and in doing so stated that the main reason people chose to park on double yellow lines was that it was the closest place to park to locations that people with reduced mobility or in a wheelchair needed to access – it was highlighted that it was a great challenge to transfer someone in a wheelchair, for example, the significant distance from the end of the car park in Bromsgrove to the Town Centre.

The Leader commented that there was a need for the review of this issue to take place but highlighted that the funds obtained from Blue Badge holders parking, and parking charges more generally, were used directly to re-invest and refurbish the Council's car parks, for example to install and repair lighting and carry out line painting and other work. It was noted that maintenance of Council car parks represented a significant cost. From the strategic point of view it was commented that the Council’s strategic document, the 2040 Vision, should contain assessments of the locations of council car parks as a lot more could be done to enhance the parking offer.

It was also highlighted that income derived from Blue Badge holder parking was used to finance the shopmobility provision in the Bromsgrove Town Centre. As such Members were asked that any review of the Blue Badge holder parking was tied into the query regarding how shopmobility provision was financed.

It was noted that the provision of 6 per cent of parking spaces as disabled bays was a best practice figure set by the Government. Officers further noted that the usage of disabled parking bays would be difficult to monitor as the only way it could potentially be undertaken was through an in-depth continuous survey of every car park in the District on a daily basis, which was not feasible.

It was noted that when the issue of Blue Badge parking was investigated previously 11-12 years ago, the local authority itself issued the Blue Badges. The Blue Badges were now issued by Worcestershire County Council, and only County-wide statistics on the number of Blue Badges issued were kept rather than breakdown of figures for each District within the County.

Following a question about survey duration and process, it was confirmed that the surveys which were carried to arrive at estimates presented before Members took place over 16 days, and these surveys were carried out at different times on each day. The surveys were undertaken by Enforcement Officers who took note of the number of cars parked in Blue Badge bays at the time they were present at each car park.

During the discussion, it was highlighted that the surveys also provided detail on the duration of stay for cars during the survey period. However, to provide a breakdown of annual income to the Council in terms of tickets issued for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours and other duration would necessitate a full review to be agreed by Members, to enable Officers to investigate the topic in-depth.

Regarding the parking meter machines, it was noted that the machines were now more sophisticated than in the past, however, there was no facility currently to programme the machines, so they provided an indication of whether it was a Blue Badger holder who was buying the ticket. This could be added as an option to the machines in the future.

It was reiterated by some Members that often people made decisions about parking based on cost and currently, some Members reported, the Council differed from almost all local authorities investigated in that it did not offer free parking up front to Blue Badge holders. It was acknowledged that there were historic reasons for the Council’s decision, however, in the context of most other authorities offering free Blue Badge parking there should be questions as to why the Council still charged Blue Badge holders for parking.

It was also noted that the rational behind the system of allowing an extra hour to Blue Badge holder parking that was adopted by the Council 11 or 12 years ago was that Blue Badge holders would be treated in the same way as other users but the extra hour was an accessibility and mobility point.

Councillor R. Hunter put forward a recommendation to the effect that a business case be produced by Cabinet to allow for a provision in the 2024-25 Budget for the Council to move to offering a free Blue Badge holder parking. It was clarified that this would mean the Council would continue to fund shopmobility provision but no longer through Blue Badge parking fees. In proposing this recommendation, Councillor R. Hunter commented that there was currently a reputational risk to the Council as it did not treat Blue Badge holders as favourably as other local authorities did. The recommendation was seconded by Councillor J. Robinson.

Councillor H. Rone-Clarke proposed an amendment to the recommendation made by Councillor R. Hunter to the effect that the scrutiny proposal for free Blue Badge holder parking be referred for consideration by the Finance and Budget Working Group (a sub-committee of the Overview and Scrutiny Board) in the first instance, and any potential business case proposal considered at that forum before proposals were submitted to Cabinet. This amendment was seconded by E. Gray.

Councillor R. Hunter responded that the issue of Blue Badge holder parking had already been considered by the Finance and Budget Working Group (sub-committee of the Overview and Scrutiny Board) in previous years on a number of occasions already with no significant actions taken. As such, decision on this issue should now be made.

The amendment as proposed by Councillor H. Rone-Clarke was put to the vote and it was carried.

RESOLVED that the proposal for free Blue Badge holders parking be referred to the Finance and Budget Working Group for consideration.