Parking charge rise plans defended as cash seen as vital

Plans to raise on-street parking charges have been defended because the roughly £4 million in cash raised is vital for funding a host of highway-related schemes, including bus routes and verge cutting.

Six Liberal Democrat councillors had collaborated on a bid to challenge a decision by their own cabinet member that proposed raising the parking fees by up to 50 per cent.
Members of a key Devon County Council scrutiny committee heard the arguments from those opposed to the on-street parking rises, but opted to stick with them for a range of reasons, most notably because of what the income helps pay for.
Councillor Jacqueline Fry (Reform UK, Newton Abbot North) told the committee she “strongly opposes the increases” as she thought the hikes would “unfairly impact rural communities and low-income residents” who rely on cars due to poor public transport.
“Many are burdened by fuel costs, caused partly by road diversions, and higher parking fees only worsen this,” she said.
“In many areas, parking is unavoidable and this will hit people on low incomes, the elderly and disabled residents, as well as small businesses and their customers.
“I urge the committee to consider the impacts on people’s budgets and wellbeing.”
And Councillor David Cox (Liberal Democrat, Teignmouth) – one of the six councillors who called the decision in – backed the fears about the impact on residents’ finances.
“I appreciate car parking charges are a small part of a cumulative effect,” he said.
“I think we need to look at the charges and the cumulative effect on the high street and on residents, as we are here for the people of Devon and I would ask that we re-examine the charges and the policy of linking them to off-road charges imposed by districts.”
Cllr Cox added the cost-of-living crisis was having an impact on high streets, including those in his division and particularly on small businesses.
The council stressed increasing parking charges were “not revenue raising”, meaning it doesn’t set them with an eye to boosting council coffers, and that the policy being proposed was an existing one pre-dating the current administration.
Crucially, the committee heard, on-street parking charges help fund subsidies for many of Devon’s bus routes, and go towards maintaining parking-related signs and road lines, maintenance of verges and grass cutting, road safety improvements, maintaining park and rides, and contributing towards the upkeep of public parks, like Stover Country Park.
Councillor Dan Thomas (Liberal Democrat, South Brent & Yealmpton), the cabinet member for highways, said any surplus funds from on-street parking charges had to be used on “very specific areas related to improving transport”, and could not legally be redirected elsewhere.
Cllr Thomas added that the rationale for increasing on-street parking charges was to make most of the fees higher than off-street car parks.
This is, he said, to discourage drivers from repeatedly driving around town centres in a bid to snap up cheaper on-street spots, and therefore to encourage them into off-street car parks, which also often offer the opportunity to park for longer periods.
Devon County Council only has responsibility for on-street parking, meaning that if more drivers did opt for off-street car parks, those charges would go to the district councils or private companies that run them.
The council’s existing policy states that charges will be reviewed every two years, however, the previous administration did not make the scheduled changes last year, which Cllr Thomas said added pressure to the need to activate increases now, or else the gap between on- and off-street parking would become too great.
He also stressed that the county council’s rises are directly influenced by district council parking charge rises, meaning hikes by district councils almost inevitably lead to higher on-street charges eventually.
But he added that in spite of the forthcoming rises, free parking for 30-minutes was still available in some places in Devon, and that some examples of a 50 per cent rise only equated to a 50p increase.
While the charges will go ahead, the corporate infrastructure and regulatory services scrutiny committee did request that the cabinet review the policy, specifically to look at the frequency of future car parking charge adjustments as well as the maximum price cap.
The idea behind this was that if prices were altered annually, then the maximum cap might be able to be lower.
The committee also asked the cabinet to continue to work with district councils on parking charges and to identify any available data that could support future decisions on parking fee changes.