26 Sep 2024
The district councillor in charge of parking has revealed what measures SADC is proposing to defuse the long-running row over proposals to charge for on-street bays in Harpenden.
Cllr Helen Campbell, chair of the public realm committee and lead councillor for parking, contacted the St Albans Times with details being suggested in the wake of the recent public consultation.
They include changing the time that the fees come into place, increasing the free period from 20 minutes to half an hour – but reducing the number of slots from two to one – and not introducing any measures until after the busy Christmas period.
Cllr Campbell explained: “We know there are concerns in Harpenden about the potential impact of charges for on-street parking. There has been a lot of chatter and noise, not all of it accurate, so I appreciate the opportunity to set out where we are at this point.
“On-street parking is a service the council provides but it has been in deficit over the last four years to the tune of £1.5m. Not only does the whole of the district ultimately end up subsidising this, it continually makes it harder for the council to provide services for vulnerable people.
“Proposals like those in the recent consultation are the sort of actions the council must consider if it is to address areas of financial deficit for the sake of the whole district community.
“As we have said many times, the council has a stark choice; find ways to make services pay for themselves and become sustainable, or ignore the gaps, let them pile up, and risk not being able to present a balanced budget and falling into effective ‘bankruptcy’.
“This has happened to other councils because sound financial decisions were not taken; we take very seriously our responsibility to make decisions in the interests of the wider community and in the interests of fairness across the district.
“The decisions we have to make are rarely palatable to all, but the way local authorities are funded by central government means something has to give if a council is to stay afloat and able to deliver services for the benefit of all.
“There have been many claims and theories since the proposals to charge for on-street parking first began to be discussed; the two most inaccurate have been that ‘the decision’ had already been taken before the consultation and that the council is looking to profit out of people parking in Harpenden. To deal with that second one swiftly, setting out to make a surplus is against the law and certainly not something the council is doing.
“Turning to the claims of a decision having already been made prior to the consultation, what is true is that a decision was taken in the council’s budget that the council would propose on-street charging, and that necessitated a consultation.
“Contrary to the belief of many, a consultation is not a referendum; the job of a consultation is to set out proposals for people to comment on and those comments are then all considered and responded to and there may or may not be modifications to the original proposals.
“Council officers have conducted a review of the consultation responses and we have listened to the concerns raised. As a result, we are now examining potential modifications to our proposals to address these concerns.
“The changes we are considering include but are not limited to: starting the chargeable period after 9am to address concerns about school drop offs; a change to one free, but longer, period of 30 minutes a day to give people longer to pop in to certain types of businesses eg pharmacies and dry cleaners; and allowing the purchase of tickets in blocks of 30 minutes to help people tailor their parking purchases to specific needs on the day.
“Overall, measures are designed to achieve improved traffic management and higher turnover of bays, and a much better balance between use of on-street parking bays for shorter trips and use of nearby car parks for longer visits. The report will be published some time after October 17 and as above, these potential changes are not exhaustive.
“Because of the necessary delays to respond to all the consultation aspects, we recognise there has been a drift in the timeline towards the key Christmas period. To give businesses more certainty, any potential implementation will not be sooner than January of next year.”
Conservative representative for Harpenden South, Cllr Matt Cowley, said: “The district council’s £1.5m loss on on-street parking, that will come as a great shock to everyone in Harpenden who sees the reality of unmaintained parking signs and lines on residential roads and unenforced illegal parking. ”Rather than looking to use Harpenden residents to plug the holes their mismanagement of the council is creating in their budgets, I would urge the Lib Dems to look at investing in technology to deliver higher revenue and lower costs.”
Meanwhile, Harpenden town councillors have voted unanimously in favour of a motion opposing the parking charges, including Cllrs Gill Haynes and Fiona Gaskell who previously spoke out in support of SADC.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting was Lara Wares from Threads gift shop, who said: “I thought it would be helpful to share the results of a survey we ran in Threads. I wanted to quantify the probable effects of the parking proposals. As far as I’m aware no market research was undertaken before the proposals were formulated.
“Unfortunately the results were much worse than I expected. We asked 143 customers if they had parked on this visit using free on-street parking. 45 per cent had.
“We then asked that 45 per cent if they would still have visited Threads on that day if they’d had to pay for parking or had been restricted to 20 minutes free parking. A whopping 80 per cent said no.
“Thinking about that in terms of our total customers that equates to 35 per cent that said they definitely would not have visited Threads on that day had the parking proposals been introduced, and a further 17 per cent said they maybe wouldn’t have visited. That’s a potential drop in footfall of 53 per cent. Unsustainable for any business.”
Fiona Thomas from Oui boutique told councillors that they had carried out did the same survey, and everybody had parked in free on-street parking spaces except one person who parked in Lydekker Park, which is free on a Saturday.
“All of them said that they probably wouldn’t have come in to us if they couldn’t have received the free on- street parking. So for us it’s 100 per cent [of customers] we would have lost.”
Town Clerk Carl Cheevers stressed that the proposals had been put forward by SADC, not Harpenden Town Council, before Mayor Cllr Pip Liver invited comments from councillors present.
Cllr Beth Fisher said: “I struggle to see how the district council can continue to justify the position, even in its tweaked form, to charge for parking on the high street…
“They haven’t really shown any real evidence that they are listening to the thousands upon thousands of people crying out and saying ‘Please don’t do this’.”
Cllr J Burrows added: “To me this is a story of two high streets three and a half miles apart. One’s lifeless, dull, soulless, with no community and one’s Harpenden.”
Cllr Richard Scott said: “This didn’t come from a position of how do we help foster a thriving high street with a mix of fantastic independent retailers and some leading national retailers? How do we make things better for visitors and shoppers and workers?
“It was a very simple decision from the district council. ‘We’ve got a budget problem. How do we tax Harpenden, which is a rich neighbourhood? They can afford it. St Albans pays these charges. Why can’t they? Why are they so different?’”
Many councillors questioned the current lack of parking enforcement, and whether the proposed charges would be the thin edge of the wedge, as once they were introduced then SADC would keep increasing them.
Cllr Gill Haynes told the meeting: “I think it’s also fair to say that the district councillors on this Town Council have actually been quietly behind the scenes trying to do our level best to persuade and encourage the district council officers to think a little bit more broadly about a parking policy in Harpenden.”
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Richard Scott said: “On Monday evening, Harpenden Town Council restated its strong opposition to the ill-conceived SADC proposals to impose parking charges on our High Street. In particular I was pleased to see the town council confirm its commitment to one hour of free parking, with no option for a longer chargeable stay.
“I am confused why SADC believe that reducing their proposed initial free period from the current one hour to 40 minutes and then to 30 minutes is an improvement in their offer.
“I respectfully suggest that SADC reflect genuinely and conscientiously on the consultation feedback, and the statements made by Harpenden Town Council specifying a one hour free period, before responding with any improved offer for Harpenden to consider.
“With the SADC consultation complete and over 90 per cent of the 1,200 responses in strong opposition to their proposals, I call on SADC to withdraw their unwanted and damaging scheme. Let us get on with our mission of making Harpenden an even better place to live, work and visit.”
Meanwhile, in the wake of SADC’s proposed amendments to their plans, Harpenden Retailers Facebook group posted: “Astonishing, SADC are considering giving us even LESS free parking by reducing the 2x20mins free parking periods to 1x30min! Unbelievable!”
Former Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Harpenden, Nigel Gardner, said in response: “The statement once again shows the [district] council simply don’t understand why residents and high street traders are so frustrated and angry.
“They should have enough respect for Harpenden to withdraw the current proposals. They are fiddling about at the edges and simply not engaging with residents and traders’ fundamental concerns.
“It’s time for the council to stop worrying about losing face and withdraw these proposals in their entirety. That’s what Harpenden wants.”
