Environment and Prosperity Scrutiny Committee
The Environment and Prosperity Scrutiny Committee deals with
Environmental Services, Regeneration and Planning and Policy.
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meetings for Environment and Prosperity Scrutiny Committee
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The issue of car parking charges is one of the most contentious
in Cheshire East.
At its inception on 1 April 2009 Cheshire East inherited parking
management regimes from the former boroughs of Crewe & Nantwich
and Macclesfield. This resulted in complaints of unfairness as
charges were higher in some areas than others, while the former
borough of Congleton had a policy of no charges for off street
parking.
A Cheshire East Parking Strategy was agreed by the Council in
July 2010 which established basic principles, objectives and policy
to achieve unified management and control across the new
Borough.
Whilst parking charges are a valuable source of revenue, the
Strategy is principally concerned with the objective of managing
parking to support the vitality and viability of our town
centres. For example, town centre shoppers’ car parks would
attract higher charges than peripheral long stay car parks to
encourage turnover of spaces and facilitate access to shops and
services.
In furtherance of the Strategy a tariff structure is required to
set out objective criteria by reference to which the actual charges
in respect of any individual car park could be
determined. This is intended to achieve consistency and
fairness by ensuring that equivalent car parks in different parts
of the Borough are charged at the same rate.
The Parking Manager brought a draft tariff structure to our
meeting for consideration on 21 February 2012. I must
emphasize that we were not considering the actual charges
applicable to individual car parks but the methodology by which
those charges could be determined. However, Members were not
comfortable with a one-size-fits-all approach and considered that
there should be greater emphasis on local conditions.
We therefore set up a Task Group to explore the possibilities in
more detail. It has met twice and will seek input from all
Members in relation to the car parks in their own Wards. It is
hoped to report back to Committee on 24 July with a view to
recommendations going to Cabinet on 20 August.
