Consultation on proposed changes to on-street parking

Overview

Warwickshire County Council Parking Management is carrying out a consultation on proposed changes to on-street parking. This consultation covers the cost of residents permits and how permitting will be managed in the future.

Why your views matter

Unfortunately, the cost of residents permits is having to rise. The residents’ permit schemes are part of the way in which we ensure that there are suitable and adequate parking facilities on the highway for people near their homes but there is an unavoidable cost to administering and enforcing such schemes. However, we do not plan to recover more income than it actually costs to run resident’s parking schemes. We want to involve the public in the decision-making process around managing parking on-street and provide as much information as we can.

We are asking for feedback on the costs of residents permits, new packages for buying visitor permits and the use of a proposed new online digital permitting system.

Anyone who is interested can respond to this consultation including but not limited to the general public, residents and permit holders, business and community representatives and other local authorities.

We aim to implement the changes to on-street parking management from 6 April 2020. The consultation is taking place now to allow enough time to consider responses before the changes are due to take place in April 2020.

What we are consulting about

We are consulting on a number of elements. A summary is provided below. Further details are provided in the Public information document at the bottom of this webpage. You may also wish to read our frequently asked questions document which provides further information.

1. Residents permit charges

Residents permit schemes have been introduced, in line with our parking policy, in parts of Warwickshire where residents struggle to park close to their homes as a result of a lack of off-street parking together with demand from other sources such as businesses, schools, hospitals and shopping locations.

Successful residents schemes rely on administration of the scheme and appropriate levels of enforcement. This comes at a cost to the Council. Analysis of the financial impact on the Council of running residents permit schemes shows a cost of close to £80 per permit. These costs include design and implementation of parking schemes, the legal process of amending traffic regulation orders, signing and lining, on-street enforcement through our service provider NSL and back office support from both NSL and at Warwickshire County Council.

For many years, Warwickshire County Council has kept its permit charges at a level which has not reflected the cost of running the permit scheme. These are currently £25 per annual permit. We now have an unavoidable need to raise our charges to more closely meet our costs.

We have commissioned a permit benchmarking report which is available to read at the bottom of this webpage. 

We are offering two options: a flat rate up to a maximum of three permits per household; or a tiered cost, again up to a maximum of three permits per household.

2. A change from paper-based to virtual permitting

In line with the government’s drive towards online systems, such as vehicle excise duty (car tax) and television licensing, we are moving towards virtual permitting which will be managed online.

Our existing paper-based permit management system is becoming obsolete with technical support from its suppliers being reduced from October onwards. We must now move to a digital, online system.

We are working with our current service provider to provide a new system called PermitSmarti. This will require you to create a user account online and will allow you to apply for, pay for and renew permits and upload any supporting documents as necessary. You will no longer receive a paper permit to put in your car. Our Civil Enforcement Officers who patrol the streets have handheld devices which can check whether a car has a permit or not.

For the small number of people who do not have internet access, it will be possible to apply via post or phone and an account will be created for you.

We have carried out an Equality Impact Assessment on the proposals to introduce online virtual permitting and this is available to read below.

3. Visitors permit changes

There is evidence that visitors permits are being sold to provide long term all-day parking on-street. This is not the intention of visitors permits and unfairly takes up kerbside space. The new system will allow residents to register their visitors’ vehicles for the period of time that they wish to park. There will be a limit on the amount of overall time that visitors may park to prevent the kind of all year round all day parking described above.

We propose to offer two packages of visitors parking via the new online virtual permitting system. Details of the proposed packages are available in the Public Information Document below. 

4. Guesthouse visitors permits

The new online virtual permitting system will require changes to how guesthouse owners manage their visitors’ parking. Scratchcards will no longer be provided.

Guesthouse owners will create their own account and register their visitors’ vehicles online before they arrive, with one vehicle per room booking. Twenty-four hours parking will cost £5 per vehicle. This is a slight increase from the £3 charge at present but is the first increase in over fifteen years.

There is no limit to the number of guesthouse visitors’ parking sessions during the course of one year.

5. Stratford Park and Ride permits

The changes will apply only to quarterly and annual season ticket permits. Daily and monthly park and ride tickets will be unaffected.

When you buy your annual or quarterly permit, you will be required to log your vehicle details with our online permitting system. You will receive an email via mobile phone which will allow you to board the bus into Stratford.

We intend to continue to make provision for employers who provide annual and quarterly season tickets for their employees.

Supporting Information

The following information is available at the bottom of this webpage to enable you to consider your response:

• Public information document with further detail
• Frequently asked questions
• Benchmarking report
• Equality impact assessments

How to take part

We welcome your comments on any of the proposed changes to the parking management system. You can feed back in the following ways:

• Complete the survey online using the link below.
• Request a paper copy by telephone (01926 410410) or email (pmc@warwickshire.gov.uk). Alternative formats and languages can also be requested this way.
•  Emailing us at pmc@warwickshire.gov.uk
• Writing to us at: Parking Permit Consultation, Parking Management Team, Warwickshire County Council, PO Box 43, Shire Hall, Warwick, CV34 4SX

What will happen after the consultation?

We will collate and analyse the responses and these will be used to assess the suitability of the proposed changes to the permit management system. Our recommendations will be considered by Warwickshire County Council Cabinet.

Information will be posted on the Council’s website www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parking and on www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ask

We aim to implement the changes to on-street parking management from 6 April 2020.

What happens next

This consultation has now closed. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to feed back to us. We will collate and analyse the responses and these will be used to assess the suitability of the proposed changes to the permit management system. Our recommendations will be considered by Warwickshire County Council Cabinet.

Information will also be posted on the Council’s website www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parking and on www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ask

We aim to implement the changes to on-street parking management from 6 April 2020.