Agenda item

Parking Enforcement Operation 2021

Minutes:

The Committee received a report regarding the Parking Enforcement Operation 2021, which detailed current staffing levels within the Authority’s parking services section.

Members asked if the Council restricted the amount of permits given out in regards to the parking spaces available; and if this had any impact on the neighbouring streets, in particular terraced areas. In terms of the current policy, it was stated that two residents per household could receive parking permits; this was reduced to one permit if there was off-street parking areas or if the property had a garage. The current permit scheme did not guarantee a space within the resident bays, however it offered residents a better opportunity to park closer to their properties. It was noted that when Officers assess a street they must retain around 30% of the street as unrestricted, which allows for visitors and those who weren’t able to park within a bay, to then be able to park within an unrestricted area; where there were very restricted streets, inevitably sometimes residents will have to park on nearby streets. Officers mentioned that with the increase of the number of vehicles privately owned, there were more cars than physical spaces on the streets in some areas, particularly where there were terraced properties. It was added that for a permit to be issued on a street, the car must be registered to a property on the street.

It was mentioned that there were some areas and spaces across the County Borough which could potentially be suitable for additional parking bays, for examples verges; Officers were asked if they could look into this type of solution and if there were any grants that could be utilised to complete this work. Officers stated that there were no specific grants to create off street residential parking bays; in the past, there had been schemes in which the Council was able to create off street parking bays, however there had not been any for some time due to the pressures on the highway maintenance budget. It was noted that this type of work was do-able if unplanned monies became available; the Team were open to suggestions and would always try and create additional parking, where possible, for residents. It was explained that Officers would need to be informed of specific issues in Members Wards in order for them to identify any funding opportunities to fund particular projects of work.

Members raised points concerning the shift pattern of the staff and the need for more resources in the service; and stated that although certain elements of enforcement had been effective, such as the mobile CCTV van, there would need to more of them in order to carry out enforcement more effectively. Officers confirmed that the CCTV van had been very effective since it had been introduced; however, under the legislation, the CCTV van could only enforce certain traffic orders such as those relating to double yellow lines, bus stops and bus laybys, zig zags and school orders. It was noted that complex changes were made when this vehicle was introduced due to the fact that every traffic order throughout the County Borough had to be digitalised; this was because the CCTV van picked up where an order starts and ends from a GPS. It was added that Officers recognised that traffic orders around schools also had to be completely regularised across the County Borough; this took a considerable amount of time to complete. Officers confirmed that they were currently working through costs to potentially purchase another vehicle due to the effectiveness of the current van and the amount of requests for an additional vehicle from Elected Members; this would increase enforcement in the County Borough, however the vans could only be in particular locations at certain times. It was confirmed that when the existing van needed to be replaced, a low emission, electric vehicle would be purchased and the same will apply when purchasing additional vehicles. 

In terms of resources, it was highlighted that the staffing levels had more or less stayed the same since Local Authorities were given enforcement powers; since that time, over the last 20 years, there had been around 600 additional enforceable traffic orders that have been implemented across the County Borough, the number of surface car parks and off street car parks had increased, as well as some of the Country Park car parks that the Council enforces. In addition, it was mentioned that there had been an increase in activity at Aberavon Sea Front in the summer months and a lot of other tourist destinations in the County Borough; this was also impacting the service due to these areas becoming more popular, therefore Officers had to react to these factors. It was stated that there were severe pressures on the parking service due to these issues raised. 

The Committee was informed that new developments have had a substantial impact on the urban areas, and had caused some residential streets to be affected; for example, there had been a lot of difficulties with displaced car parking at the university campus on Fabian Way, and because of this Officers had deployed enforcement to the area when the university was in operation.

Another difficulty noted was the taxi ranks; however, colleagues in the Licensing Team had recently taken a report to Cabinet to enable a more joined up approach on the enforcement of the taxi ranks.

In regards to staffing levels, it was noted that the service had 10 Officers in total, two of those being Senior Officers; one job was currently being advertised as an employee had recently left the Council. It was confirmed that with the new recruit, the staffing levels would total at nine employees, as one Senior Officer had been deployed to assist with the Test, Trace Protect (TTP) Service. It was mentioned that the staff worked a split shift, and Officers highlight the various times and days that were in the schedule; Officers were also asked to work overtime to support night time enforcement.

A discussion took place in regards to the new parking meters, which now had contactless payment; Members queried whether they were easy to use. It was explained that the contactless feature was relatively easy to use; it required the user to enter their car registration number and tap their contactless card against the machine before a ticket would then be provided. Officers stated that there had been a phased plan of renewal of all of the pay and display parking meters across the County Borough; some were now solar powered meters, and others were hard wired. It was added that all of the machines were now bilingual, and there were various options to pay for parking; this included chip and pin payment, cash payment and contactless payment. Members were informed that the service was also in the process of rolling out a pay by phone option via the MiPermit facility, to all car parks across the County Borough; this was already in place at the Aberavon Sea Front car park, and allowed the public to pay for their ticket on their phone.

Officers highlighted that cash collection from the parking meters had been reduced significantly due to more people opting for card payment or cashless payment; the service had been able to review the cash collection system as a whole because of this. It was noted that there was very little cash now in the meters, and signs had been put up informing the public of this; there had been numerous incidents where individuals had tried to break into the machines, therefore it was important to ensure that the public were aware that the system was now predominantly cashless.

It was asked, where there were major issues with parking in certain streets, would it be possible to take away some of the grass verges to allow for additional parking spaces. Officers confirmed that they were content to identify opportunities where this could be carried out; there were various stages to doing this, one of which would include involving the Road Safety Team to obtain their views from a road safety perspective. It was mentioned that in some locations within the County Borough, Officers had advised against creating parking spaces on grass verges particularly around schools; in these instances Officers had looked at putting other mitigation measures in place. It was confirmed that in all cases, it would need to be identified if capital funding was available for the work to be carried out.

Officers provided information regarding the new legislation that was due to be issued during the term of the current Welsh Government; one of the main elements of this was pavement parking. It was explained that the powers of enforcement of pavement parking was going to be taken from the Police and provided to Local Authorities in Wales; this will provide significant additional pressures to the enforcement teams.

A suggestion was made to involve residents in discussions regarding identifying solutions to parking issues in residential areas.

Following scrutiny, the report was noted.

 

Supporting documents: