Cabinet rejects annual £25 charge for residents parking schemes as “households are struggling to make ends meet”

                                                    

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 6th November 2017 Part 1 of 2

This is an update to a story published last week on this blog headlined Will Wirral Council start charging up to £25 a year for parking permits in resident parking scheme areas?

Cabinet met on Monday and watered down cross-party proposals that would’ve resulted in consultation on an estimated annual £25 charge on households for residents’ parking schemes.

The original recommendations were:

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Recommendation 1
It is recommended that:

i) The Resident Parking Policy is updated to reflect the proposed amendments to the existing criteria and the inclusion of a policy statement allowing discretionary consideration of applications where all parts of the criteria are not complied with as detailed in Appendix 4 to this report;
ii) A full review of the amended policy is carried out after the first two years of operation with a report back to the relevant Overview & Scrutiny Committee on the findings of that review and any other recommendations arising.

Recommendation 2
It is recommended that applications for resident parking schemes should be accompanied by a non-refundable application fee to cover the cost of the initial investigation only.It is recommended that this fee is discounted from the introduction fee applied to successful applications.

Recommendation 3
Officers should review all issues relating to visitor passes to properties included within a resident parking scheme, including how these are issued and the number of passes per property, giving due regard to issues of effectiveness, cost and resources to administer.

Recommendation 4
It is recommended that officers are provided with delegated powers to review and update the level of permit fee for resident parking schemes on an annual basis as part of the annual fees and charges review process; taking into account the cost of administration, maintenance and periodic reviews of the schemes to ensure they remain fit for purpose.

Recommendation 5
It is recommended that officers are instructed to commence the necessary legal processes to amend all historic resident parking schemes in order to implement permit fees.

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Cllr Stuart Whittingham said at the meeting, “Some of these schemes are in areas where households are struggling to make ends meet.”

He went on to ask Cabinet’s approval for a change to the original recommendations as follows:-

“Delete the recommendation on page 53 and replace with:

1. Cabinet notes the findings of the report and approves the first three recommendations of the Task and Finish Group.

2. For new schemes and those introduced since 2007 under the most recent policy, charges for residents’ permits should continue to be fixed at £10 per a year until further notice.

3. For the majority of historic schemes issued before 2007 where residents do not currently pay traffic for residents permits, existing residents already in these areas should continue to enjoy these schemes for free with the exception that new residents moving into these areas as from the 1st April 2018 should pay £10 a year.

4. Officers are instructed to commence the necessary legal processes to amend the road traffic regulation orders on this basis.”

Cabinet agreed the altered recommendations.

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