Be prepared to pay for Sunday parking as council agrees extra charges

Sunday parking charges are set to be introduced in Lace Walk car park in Honiton, with evening charges to be implemented across the district.

Two other car parks in Ottery St Mary and Axminster will also see new charges brought in.

East Devon District Council's present car parking tariffs already treat Sundays as a normal trading day in their coastal towns.

However, for historic reasons, payment for use of their car parks in Honiton, Ottery St Mary and Axminster on Sundays has never been a requirement.

The Car Parking Task and Finish Forum, when they met on Tuesday morning, backed proposals from officers for this to end as 'there is no logical reason to continue with this no charges on Sundays' policy in these towns'.

The councillors also agreed to introduce a nominal £1 fee for an evening parking charge between 8pm and 6am at car parks in seven of the towns in East Devon.

Andrew Ennis, service lead for car parks, told the committee that that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were seeing levels of commercial activity in our towns on Sundays that was largely not happening in the past.

He said that while they have no data on car park use on Sundays in Honiton and it is extremely difficult to estimate the level of revenue that might accrue from the introduction of Sunday charges there, anecdotally it does seem clear that a significant number of cars are making use of these facilities on Sundays and that some local businesses and leisure facilities are open.

He said: "It would therefore be reasonable to suggest that charges should be imposed so that customers using our car parking facilities are then paying towards their maintenance and management and Members may take a view that there is no logical reason to continue with this no charges on Sundays' policy in these towns and it might be reasonable to say that the time has come to charge in the same way we do in the coastal towns."

Cllr Eleanor Rylance said that she supported trialling this, adding: "If we are only not charging for historic reasons, then trial it and see what works.

"We don't know what next few years will look like, and we can revise it if it doesn't work."

Cllr Olly Davey added: "I don't want to have anomalies and it is only fair we have a level field across the area.

"I appreciate there will be howls of outrage about this and they will say that it will spell the end of businesses in town centre, but I don't see why people in one place have to pay and not in another."

Cllr Andrew Moulding, who represents Axminster, said that he would not be favour of it, and it would be very detrimental to those people going to church or using pubs and restaurants on a Sunday lunch, and then to have to pay car parking charges would not be appreciated.

But the committee voted by four votes to two, with two abstentions, in favour of the proposal to introduce Sunday charges to the three towns.

The decision followed the Forum backing plans to introduce an evening parking charge – initially at a flat rate of just £1 – to make a proportionate contribution to management, enforcement and wear and tear costs associated with the car parks.

Mr Ennis said that the short stay car parking tariff currently allows members of the public to park free of charge between 8pm and 6am, but that they know that the evening period can be busy.

He said that again there were historical reasons why the council doesn't make a charge, but that any new charges would have to be modest so that the council doesn't 'look greedy' or drive people into parking for free in residents streets.

He added: "The nominal charge would cover the upkeep. £1 won't be disproportionate to the benefits, but there is always the risk it is seen as a tax on businesses."

Cllr Rylance said that from an environment point of view, having in the back of mind that you have to pay a token sum to park is a good place to be, while Cllr Davey said that the £1 fee was not a lot to ask and could generate useful income, and that if trialled for a year, it could be reviewed to see if had worked.

But Cllr Maddy Chapman called the decision to be deferred until the pandemic was over. She said: "We will then see how many businesses have actually managed to survive and putting the car parks charges up won't help."

The Forum though voted by five votes to one, with one abstention, for the trial of £1 evening parking charges in the affected car parks.

They are the Lace Walk short stay car park in Honiton, West Street short stay car park in Axminster, Orchard car park in Seaton, Central car park in Beer, Mill Street, the Ham East and West and the Roxburgh car park in Sidmouth, Rolle Mews car park in Budleigh Salterton and the London Inn car park, Imperial Road car park and Exmouth Pavilion car park in Exmouth.

But the Forum voting against making any immediate decisions over the future of several 'loss making' car parks in the district, whereby the either generate no income or less than their costs.

They called for the full details around costs for each of the 15 car parks to be brought back to them at a future meeting so they could examine each car park on its own merits before deciding whether to introduce car parking charges, or offer the management of the facilities to parish councils if they wished to keep the car parks free.