Report of the Operational Director of Highways

The purpose of this paper is to consider a new resident parking policy for Manchester. The policy, once approved, will enable the council to move forward in designing, costing and ultimately implementing a sustainable model for residents’ parking schemes across the city.

The Committee considered the report of the Operational Director of Highways that invited the Members to consider a new resident parking policy for Manchester. The policy, once approved, would enable the council to move forward in designing, costing and ultimately implementing a sustainable model for residents’ parking schemes across the city.

The report informed Members that it would be necessary to come back to a future meeting with detailed proposals including costs, how schemes would be funded and a proposed charging regime once further work on testing existing and potential new schemes against the policy principles had been undertaken.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report which included:-

·                A background to resident’s parking schemes since the introduction of these in the city almost 20 years ago;

·                Proposed Principles for Resident Parking Schemes;

·                Where schemes should be considered;

·                Financial consequences and the need for a clear plan for meeting revenue costs;

·                Visitor, carer’s and business permits and Blue Badge holders; and

·                Information on the proposal to review existing schemes.

The Committee heard from a resident of St Georges, Hulme who had been invited to address the Members to describe the experience of local residents. He informed the Committee:-

·                Residents experienced inconsiderate parking on their streets by people who use the streets as a car park;

·                Of daily incidents of cars being parked over dropped kerbs, parking on pavements and on double yellow lines;

·                Pedestrians were unable to use the pavements as a result of this inconsiderate parking,

·                It was not safe for wheel chair users and residents with a disability to use the pavements;

·                Bin collection and road sweepers had difficulty accessing the area due to the parking of cars, this had an impact on the cleanliness of the area;

·                Concerns had been expressed that in the event of a tragedy, emergency vehicles would be unable to access the area;

·                Section 106 funding from local building developments should be used to fund a local resident parking scheme; and

·                Residents of St Georges were calling for parity as other resident parking schemes existed in the Hulme area. 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:-

·                Acknowledging that the increase in car use and related parking issues was as a result of the success of the city;

·                Acknowledging that more schemes are desperately needed to tackle the blight of commuter parking particularly, but not exclusively in the area surrounding the city centre;

·                Acknowledging the financial pressures that new schemes will add to already existing revenue costs;

·                Discussions with local residents had highlighted that residents would not be willing to pay for schemes that already existed and had stated that these schemes should remain as they were. There were, however, areas highlighted where residents would be prepared to contribute towards the costs of a scheme;

·                Acknowledging the principle of tightening availability of residents visitor permits as they may be subject to abuse, but recognise the reality that residents are visited by multiple friends and visitors; 

·                Local business such as the Universities, Hospitals and the Etihad Stadium, that were seen to impact on residents parking as a result of their expansion should contribute and pay for residents parking schemes;

·                Consideration to Park and Ride schemes should be given at locations across the city;

·                Reconsideration should be given to introducing a Congestion Charge in the city, commenting that in addition to parking issues it would further address air pollution and improve traffic management across the city; and

·                More needed to be done to improve access as well as encourage and invest on more sustainable forms of public transport across the city which would reduce the reliance on the car as the primary source of transport for people. 

The Executive Member for the Environment, Planning and Transport said that she welcomed and acknowledged the views of the Committee and that she did care about the views expressed by residents. She said that these would be relayed to the meeting of the Executive who would be considering this report at their meeting of 12 September.

Decisions

The Committee proposed the following recommendations for consideration by the Executive:-

1. That Section 106 and Council resources should be use to immediately fund the four schemes identified within the report. (Rusholme, North Manchester General Hospital, Hathersage Road Area and St George’s).

2. That all of the current existing resident parking schemes are to remain the same.

3. There should be no cost to residents benefiting from resident parking schemes. Contributions to meet revenue costs for schemes should be sought by the organisation/development causing parking problems e.g. airport, hospitals, stadiums, universities in the first instance. That there should be better balance between controlling abuse of visitor permits and flexibility for more than one visitor per household.

4. Revenue costs and administration costs of those existing schemes should be reviewed and where possible reduced.

5. The Executive to consider and bring forward proposals for implementation of resident parking schemes that were not explicitly referenced within the report should be brought forward and implemented.