The Leader of Babergh District Council
Minutes:
72.1 The Leader of the Council, Councillor Ward provided the following update on Parking in Babergh District:
This is a follow-up to the email I sent to all members on 26th November. I want to summarise some of the key points today, so it is a matter of public record, even though we are not being live-streamed.
We always knew that the proposed changes would be challenging – and it has proved possibly to be the most controversial and emotive thing we have done at Babergh. Yes, the cost of providing car parks must sensibly be borne at least in part by the users so we can free up funds for services for all our residents and yes, we do want to encourage transport modal shift for those living close to the town centres, but the question of whether the reduction from three hours to one hour free parking will or will not have an impact on businesses is really at the core of the controversy and it is clear that there are strongly held views on both sides. Our two towns have a very varied range of mostly independent shops, and both have busy markets – Hadleigh’s has grown significantly recently, and it is clear that, despite the online naysayers who wish to talk them down, our towns are doing reasonably well. The Christmas trading period will be critical for our businesses. the disappearance of the large chain stores is futile: the nature of shopping – particularly in small towns – is changing and we must and do support and encourage that change.
But we must also acknowledge that many businesses are fearful that any change to parking charges at the moment could affect what is for some a slow recovery from Covid. Irrespective of whether any effect is real or not, that fear exists and as a result of this we have made a further postponement of the tariff changes.
The original cabinet decision still stands, and it will be for cabinet to give a steer on a new date. The decision does not need to be reconsidered by Cabinet if the intention is still to implement charges at some point in the future.
The Assistant Director has delegated authority to determine the date of implementation for the required traffic orders, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for the Environment, subject to the date being not earlier than October 2021. The Cabinet Member should give a steer to the AD, in line with the collective view of the Cabinet, but it is the officer who will take the decision.
I know there has been some confusion and disquiet about how this has been done, but the process we followed is exactly the same as that done in the Summer when we postponed from October to January, albeit this time there was disagreement about it.
So, to conclude, we are postponing the implementation of short-term parking charges beyond January. As I have said, high street recovery is slow, confidence is shaky and there is a real fear of anything that may discourage shoppers. Although we didn’t know it at the time, it does seem to have been a wise decision: the omicron variant has emerged and, whilst we don’t yet know its eventual health impact, it is starting to affect behaviour with events and parties being cancelled.
It now gives us time to look again at this and identify options and mitigating measures to minimise the impact on our businesses.
72.2 Councillor Arthey stated that he had expected that the statement made in the email sent to Members on the 26 November would be included in today’s statement, whilst querying whether the email was a public document or not. He then quoted from the statement made on the 26 November: ‘Finally I want to clarify that the claim made publicly to the media that the initially proposal for the parking charges was an independent one, is not true, it was not, as I stated earlier the idea first came from the Conservative Group to Cabinet’
72.3 Councillor Arthey stated that for the Independent Group this was an important statement, as the earlier proposals were different than those now included in the parking charge papers. This had been achieved as a result of the Independent and Liberal Democrat Members in Cabinet, who had secured a dilution of the original proposal, which had then been put to Cabinet.
72.4 Councillor Ward responded that it had not been his intention to leave this out of his statement today and that he fully acknowledged the content of the email sent to all Members. He confirmed that the email of the 26 November sent to all Members was a public document.
72.5 In response to Councillor Davis’ questions relating to when the parking charges would be revisited by Cabinet, Councillor Ward stated that the Cabinet would only be considering a new paper if substantial changes were made to parking charges.