Issue - meetings

Portfolio Holder – Councillor Jane Riley

This report reviews the fees charged for permits within the Ipswich Residents Parking Scheme and makes recommendations for changes. 

104.1. Councillor Riley introduced the report that sought to change the pricing structure of resident parking permits based on the length of vehicles as there was a limited amount of space available across the parking bays in the 5 Residents Parking Zones and most vehicle models had become greater in length. The proposed scheme was based on the vehicle length criteria used by Norwich City Council with examples of the vehicle length categories set out in Appendix 3 of the report. Some exemptions would apply, such as Blue Badge holders, and any vehicle over 6 metres in length would be ineligible for a permit. Public notice of the proposals would be given with a statutory 21-day consultation period.

104.2. In accordance with Part 4, Section 4, Paragraph 3.9 of the Constitution, the following questions were asked:

Question 1 – Councillor T Lockington

Given that the Residents Parking Zone arrangements are not intended to be a fund raiser for the Council but self-funding, and given that the increase from £60 to £62 (Table 1 on page 60) for the small car rate already involves an inflation uplift, and small family cars such as a Ford Fiesta will attract an additional 25% charge on top of this, to reassure residents that this policy is not an excessive uplift, would it not be more appropriate to reduce the tariff for small cars by 25%, centre the proposed £62 inflation uplifted charge on medium cars and apply the 25% uplift to large (longer) cars?

104.3. Councillor Riley reported that the scheme was proposed to address the issues and concerns of residents associated with the limited amount of on-street parking and the issue of having more vehicles on the road with many of those being longer than they have historically been. By implementing the scheme whereby residents who had larger vehicles would pay more for taking up more of the on-street parking space, it would cost the Council more than it did currently to manage and enforce the Residents Parking Schemes. This meant that Councillor Lockington’s proposal to reduce the cost for smaller vehicles would effectively result in a decrease of income to the Council, whereas this proposal was calculated to enable the Council to recover all its costs from administering the Residents Parking Schemes.

Question 2 – Councillor I Lockington

With regards to page 61-62, Option A, Table 2: The Visitors Permit proposed fees will make it more difficult for residents who can buy these. The resident may not know precisely what size of car their guests/workmen arrive in. The three different prices will mean residents will probably have to buy three different sets of Permits and try to work out which Permit they need to put on which car. I fear this will be confusing for some of our residents and lead to them being penalised financially through Parking Enforcement Notices. Is that really what you are aiming for?

104.4. Councillor Riley reported that currently residents could buy visitor permits in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104