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CHILTERN DISTRICT COUNCILCABINET 14 SEPTEMBER 2010

Background Papers, if any, are specified at the end of the Report

ANNUAL CAR PARKING REPORT (2009/10)Contact Officer: Oliver Asbury 01494 732066RECOMMENDATIONS

1 That Members note this report which combines both on andoff-street parking.

2 That Members note that under the Traffic Management Act2004 this report will be submitted to the Department for

Transport.

Relationship to Council Objectives

Objective 1: Efficient and effective customer focussed services.Objective 3: Conserve the environment and promote sustainability.

Implications

(i) Not a key decision.

(ii) Within the Policy and Budgetary Framework.

Financial Implications

There are no direct financial implications associated with this report.

Risk Implications

There are no direct risk implications associated with this report.

Equalities Implications

Parking for Blue Badge holders is provided throughout all Councilowned/managed car parks and national exemptions are provided on-street within the District.

Sustainability Implications

There are no direct sustainability implications associated with thisreport.

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Report

1 It is practice to present Members with a report on the operation of theoff and on-street parking functions. This report was last presented inSeptember 2009.

2 CDC are now required to report annually to Central Government on theCouncils on and off-street parking management statistics.

3 Members are asked to note this report which will be forwarded to theDepartment for Transport in September 2010.

Off-Street Parking

4 The Council operates 18 car parks. In addition, the Council Office carpark is accessible to the public for use free of charge after 5.30pm

weekdays and through weekends and bank holidays.

5 There is a total availability of 2,521 spaces which includes disabledspaces but excludes the Council Office car park which has a further177 spaces.

6 All of the car parks are owned by this Council except for Buryfields CarPark which is leased from the Great Missenden Parish Council until2013 and Chesham Station Car Park which is leased from LondonUnderground until March 2012.

Finance

7 A tariff increase was brought into effect on 1 April 2010 whichincreased only the 1 and 2 hours bands from 50p and 1 to 60p and1.20 respectively. No changes to season tickets were made.

8 The policy for off-street car parking requires that charges be set at alevel that, as a minimum, covers the total cost of the operation of theoff-street car parks and, as required by the Councils financial strategy,generates an income stream to support the Councils revenue budget

thereby reducing the financial impact on Council Tax payers.

9 The Off-Street Car Parking out-turn figures shown in the table below for2009/10 (although below original budgets) shows a further increase on2008/09 of 56,000.

2008/09Surplus

2009/10Income

2009/10Expenditure

2009/10Surplus

(305,550) Surface Car Parks (937,959) 551,614 (386,345)

(307,289) Amersham Multi

Storey Car Park

(619,150) 337,218 (281,932)

(612,839) Total (1,557,109) 888,832 (668,277)

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aid when needed and working with the Police in reporting andcollecting evidence to assist in protecting the community.

20 The Parking Manager is responsible for the overall parkingmanagement which includes managing all the CEOs and back office

functions.

21 A review/appraisal of the overall parking function in February 2010concluded that the management and operation of the service iseffective and appropriate. The review sought to address anyinconsistencies. The review identified that CDCs parking function wasperforming at levels expected in central London.

Health and Safety

22 Equipment and working procedures have been reviewed and the

Councils responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974(HASWA 1974) and the Management of Health and Safety at WorkRegulations 1999 (MHSWR 1999) regarding this function are beingmanaged and are regularly addressed through ongoing reviews.

Training

23 To continually offer a high level of service, in what can be very difficultand, in some cases confrontational situations, the CEOs are trained orbeing trained to NVQ (now City and Guilds) in parking.

24 During 2009/10 the CEOs received the following training:

City and Guilds level 2 CEO course

IT Training

25 The establishment for the Parking Section is 1 Parking Manager, 5.67full time equivalent with 0.68 P/T temporary Civil Enforcement Officers(CEOs) and 2 Notice Processing Assistants (currently 1 NPA is parttime).

Parking Facilities for Parents Dropping off School Children (Go For Gold)

26 Within the District we currently operate seven Go for Gold schemes.This scheme was approved at the Executive meeting on 3 rd September2002 (Minute 111). These schemes are designed to enable parents topark free of charge for an agreed time (which depends on the distancefrom the car park to the school) and then walk their children to schoolalong a designated route.

27 Such schemes currently operate within the car parks at Great

Missenden (Link Road), at Chesham (Water Meadow), at Chalfont StPeter (Church Lane) and Chalfont St Giles (Blizzards Yard), Amersham

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(Sycamore Road), Amersham Old Town (Dovecote Meadow) andPrestwood (High Street).

Developments made within the Parking Sections Managementand Operation this year

28 Star Yard Car Parks lighting was upgraded in March 2010 with thelining refreshed and upgraded around the recycling area. The H&POverview Committee noted this as a positive investment.

29 The main internal lighting at the Amersham Multi-Storey Car Park wasupgraded to LED lighting in December 2009 with further workupgrading the emergency lighting in March 2010. The LED lighting iscurrently under review. Initial indications are that 50% energy savingsequating to 10,000 per year are being achieved. The H&P OverviewCommittee noted this as a very positive outcome, this project will also

be the subject of a further report to Cabinet following theexperimental/review period.

30 The recycling area in Church Lane Car Park was rationalised toimprove its appearance and ease of use.

31 In November 2009 Cabinet agreed to continue with the Verrus /paybyphone system of cashless payment for parking in all the Counciloperated car parks, by entering into a 4 year contract with Verrus /Paybyphone with an appraisal of the service in 3 years (May 2013).

Charging Hours

32 Charges for the Councils off-street car parks apply from 7.30am to6.00pm Mondays to Saturdays.

33 Currently no charge is made on Sundays and Bank Holidays in ChilternDistrict Councils car parks. Aylesbury Vale DC do not charge forSundays or Bank Holidays. Wycombe DC charge between 1 and1.50 per day in their busiest car parks on Sundays and Bank Holidays

with the rest remaining free. South Bucks DC charge 1 in all car parks

during those periods.

On-Street Parking

34 The decision was made by the Executive on 9 March 2004 (Minute219) to proceed with the Special Parking Area (SPA) (now CEA). Anagreement was entered with Buckinghamshire County Council as tohow the CEA would operate.

35 The agreement with the County Council set out a framework of how theCEA should operate with delegation over management made to

Chiltern District Council. Parking statistics are discussed monthly withBCC.

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36 Operation of the CEA commenced on 1 September 2005.

37 On the 22 March 2010 and with only limited prior discussion,Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) informed CDC that they wish

to be the authority that manages all on-street parking and enforcement.Therefore the agreement with Chiltern District Council (CDC) tomanage the Civil Enforcement Area will be terminated.

38 CDC is and will continue to be responsible for our off-street car parkswithin the District.

39 The implication of BCC's decision is that by 1 April 2012 at the latest,CDC will cease to have any involvement in the management andenforcement of on-street parking.

40 Since BCC will in future be solely responsible for on-street parkingmanagement and enforcement, BCC rather than CDC will beresponsible for taking forward any changes to existing or creating newparking restrictions.

41 Requests for amendments to current restrictions or for new restrictionssuch as residents parking permits are now being directed to BCC.

Finance

42 On-street income mainly results from Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs)issued for parking contraventions with a small section of short-stay Payand Display in Whieldon Street Old Amersham.

43 The Chiltern CEA is legally required to operate under the originalagreement signed between the District and County Council whichrequires it to be self financing. However, under Part 6 of the TrafficManagement Act 2004 which came into effect on 31 March 2008 CEAsdo not need to be self financing.

44 It was agreed that the income from Penalty Charge Notices, whether

issued on or off-street would be credited to the CEA account. This is toreflect that the off-street car park pay and display income increased asa result of the enforcement of on-street parking restrictions.

45 The cost of a PCN is currently 70 for the higher contravention and 50for the lower. If payment is received within fourteen days of thecontravention date then the cost is reduced to 35/25. The CEA iscurrently reliant on the PCN income and a short section of pay anddisplay in Amersham Old Town. The recovery rate for PCNs isimportant as is the ability for BCC to conduct timely reviews of waitingrestrictions to address parking issues.

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46 A key function for the CEOs was to carry out cash collections andmaintain the pay and display machines in the Councils off-street carparks to ensure that they were able to take payments. Since the cashcollection and machine maintenance function has been out sourced theCEOs have had more time to focus on their priority function of

enforcement. Outsourcing cash collection in particular was a keyefficiency and H&S improvement to the Council.

47 The On-Street out-turn figures for 2009/10 are set out in the tablebelow. PCN performance for 2009/10 was very good.

Budget Actual Variance

CEA Account 2009/10 2009/10 2009/10

Revenue Costs

- direct operating costs 160,680 140,188 -20,492

- indirect costs 169,240 164,000 -5,240

- PCN income (191,500) (206,484) -14,984- Pay & Display income (36,000) (35,870) 130

- income from charges/other income (4,160) (4,654) -494

Net Revenue Cost of CEA for year 98,260 57,180 -41,080

Capital Costs

- capital expenditure in year 0 0 0

Net Capital Cost of CEA for year 0 0 0

Net Deficit on CEA Account for year 98,260 57,180 (41,080)

The cumulative position to 31 March 2010 on the CEA account isshown in the following table:

Actual Actual Actual Actual Actual

CEA Account 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10

Revenue Costs

from Sept 2005

- direct operating costs 131,578 150,514 158,034 165,887 140,188

- indirect costs 80,638 133,072 185,779 248,830 164,000

- PCN income (102,595) (148,379) (174,770) (173,426) (206,484)

- Pay & Display income 0 0 (19,542) (35,910) (35,870)

- income from charges/other income (3,553) (3,795) (3,829) (5,866) (4,654)

Net Revenue Cost of CEA for year 106,068 131,412 145,672 199,515 57,180

Cumulative Net Revenue Cost of CEA 106,068 237,480 383,152 582,667 639,847

Capital Costs

- capital expenditure 184,525 26,938 13,825 0 0

Net Capital Cost of CEA for year 184,525 26,938 13,825 0 0

Cumulative Capital Cost of CEA 184,525 211,463 225,288 225,288 225,288

Net Deficit on CEA Account for year 290,593 158,350 159,497 199,515 57,180

Cumulative Deficit on CEA Account 290,593 448,943 608,440 807,955 865,135

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48 BCC have settled their share of the deficit to March 2009 and by thetime this report is noted will have been invoiced for their 50% share ofthe 2009/10 deficit.

Developments made to the on-street operation this year.

49 At the time of writing this report BCC have concluded theirconsultations on the Chesham and Amersham parking proposals andare installing the signs and lines. No pay and display bays have beeninstalled, however, the new locations identified as potential pay anddisplay bays in King George V Road and Sycamore Road are beinginstalled as limited waiting bays to provide additional short stayparking. The existing short section of limited waiting in Station Roadhas been converted to shared use (resident permit holders and limited

waiting) and a disabled parking space installed in the post officeservice road in Hill Avenue.

50 Supported by BCC and the CEA Steering Group, and following widerconsultation with the community, Cabinet agreed enhancedenforcement of specific Double Yellow Lined locations.

Surpluses

51 No surplus has been generated on the parking account.

Performance

52 Statistics for performance for the on and off-street parking functionsbetween 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010 can be found in Appendix17.1

53 Appendix 1 shows 4683 PCNs issued off-street with 5029 PCNs issuedon-street in 2009/10.A 20% increase on the previous year.

54 Shifts Covered 95% (of which 5% was training and sickness).

55 Hourly PCN rate 1.00 (based on a 9.25 hour shift).

Miscellaneous Matters

56 During the 2nd

year of operation Chiltern District Council acceptedresponsibility for the maintenance of the CEA signs and lines andthrough liaison with BCCs parking section now agree sections ofrestrictions to be refreshed.

57 In the first Annual CEA Report we stated that we were seekingcompensation from the County Council for PCNs which were not ableto be issued because of the defective signs and lines. Two methods

were used to calculate lost income which resulted in two similar figures.

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