Plymouth City council have confirmed their parking consultation on the Parking Modernisation Plan is scheduled to run from 19th August to the 10th September.
They would like to raise awareness of the consultation to the Waterfront BID businesses and welcome any representations to the proposals.
Whilst not initially part of the Parking Modernisation Plan, they have been able to include within this consultation the works to support businesses and visitors along Southside street.
Details are as follows:
On 7th July, the City Councils Cabinet approved the undertaking of consultation around a suite of proposed changes to Parking in the city, changes that seek to strike a balanced response to economic and environmental challenges. These changes are intended to:
• Improve customer experience, customer journey and access to services;
• Demonstrate our values as a responsible Council in responding to the climate emergency, supporting the Councils £9.8M investment in mobility hubs as part of a wider £58.8M investment to encourage modal shift and a step change in our sustainable transport offer;
• Support the wider strategy for economic recovery and the city’s recovery from COVID-19;
• Respond to the financial impact of COVID-19 on income, income critical to the delivery of key services.
• Support businesses on the Waterfront, improve access, safety and traffic flow along Southside Street.
Full details of the proposals can be found with the published report here: https://democracy.plymouth.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=4080 The report details the proposed schedule of charges and supporting information such as benchmarking and equality impact assessment.
Below is a summary of the proposed changes setting out how the Council proposes to achieve these objectives.
On Street Parking:
• Investment to modernise parking payment systems to increase access to services, offer motorists greater choice, convenience and remove the need to use cash;
• To revise fees and bring charges more in line with other cities
• Allow motorists to use remaining parking time in other On Street pay and display locations;
• Revise overnight tariff and allow visitors longer the next day;
• Introduce a new 24hr tariff enabling visitors to stay longer;
• Removal of maximum stay restrictions where parking is not required to support local businesses that thrive on the ‘churn’ of vehicles.
• Amend loading bays on Southside Street to provide 24 hours loading for local businesses and extend no loading restrictions to support safety and traffic flow
Car Parks:
• To revise fees and bring charges more in-line with other cities
• Incentive longer stays through reductions to some longer stay tariffs, introduce the option of a 24-hour stay and allow remaining parking time to be used in other car parks;
Permits:
• Increase the fees for residents parking permits *
• Remove Annual Visitor Permits to ensure a consistent and fair approach to residents visitor parking across the city
• Create new healthcare permit to support delivery of care in communities;
• Maintain support to city businesses through business permits and increase fee for business permits
* Please note the published report referred to a proposal for resident’s permits to move to an emission-based fee structure. This was not approved by Cabinet. Resident’s permits are proposed to increase in line with inflationary increases (back dated to the date of their last increase) from £30 to £41.
Blue Badge Holders:
• Maintain support to blue badge holders through enabling blue badge holders to apply for residential disabled bays and to require the cost of providing a bay is met by applicant.
• Maintain support to blue badge holders through maintaining access to the ‘Accessibility Permit’, expand the car parks where this can be used and increase the permit fee.
These proposals will be advertised, from 19th August through to the 10th of September, via public notices in the local media and via notices displayed at locations where restrictions are proposed to change; such as car parks and various On Street locations. These notices advise how people can submit representations to any of the proposals.
If you have any further enquiries, or would like to submit a representation in respect to these proposals, please sent to trafficmanagementinbox@plymouth.gov.uk
