Issue - meetings

This report is due to be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at a meeting scheduled to take place on Thursday, 4^th June 2020.  There is the possibility that the Overview and Scrutiny committee will amend the recommendations.  Any changes agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be reported to the Executive Committee in an extract from the minutes of the meeting, which will be included in a supplementary pack for the meeting.

Councillor Mark Shurmer, Chair of the Parking Enforcement Task Group, presented the group’s final report.  The Committee was informed that during the review Members had gathered evidence from a range of sources including Council Officers, Worcestershire County Council, Wychavon District Council, which delivered the parking enforcement service in Redditch on Redditch Borough Council’s behalf, and scrutiny reports issued by other Councils on the subject.  The group had consulted with other Borough Councillors by circulating a survey, which had revealed that parking problems were frequently reported to Members representing wards across the Borough, particularly in respect of parking near schools.  Each member of the group had also spent time accompanying a Civil Parking Enforcement Officer during a shift working in Redditch and this experience had been very informative.

The review of parking enforcement had been launched following discussion at a meeting of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee, where problems with parking in the Borough had been raised as a concern by Members.  The group had initially focused on the Council’s contract with Worcestershire County Council to provide the parking enforcement service in Redditch.  Members were asked to note that the service could not generate a profit that would benefit the Council; any excess revenue generated by the service over the costs of delivering the service had to be returned to Worcestershire County Council.  However, there had been years where the service had operated at a financial loss and in those instances Redditch Borough Council had to cover the costs.

Members were advised that the group had proposed five recommendations all of which had been based on evidence gathered during the review.  In presenting the group’s recommendations to the Executive Committee one of these recommendations, recommendation 4 in the Task Group’s report, had been presented in two parts; whilst the Executive Committee could determine to send paper copies of the group’s report to the County Councillors representing a division in Redditch, only Worcestershire County Council could decide whether road markings should be discussed at a forthcoming meeting of the Redditch Highways Forum, as proposed by the group.

Following presentation of the report the Chair explained that, at a recent meeting of the Worcestershire Leaders’ Board he had already mentioned the issue of parking enforcement and the need for more Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) to be introduced for the zigzag lines located outside schools.  There had been general consensus amongst the other Leaders present at the meeting that this would be a suitable subject for further discussion as there was the same problem across the county. 

The Committee subsequently discussed the group’s report in detail.  The hard work of the group was recognised, and Members welcomed the majority of the group’s findings.  Members noted that this was an issue that had implications for all wards, as Members frequently received complaints about problem parking, and action to address this problem could help to enhance community safety.

However, during consideration of this item concerns were raised about the group’s proposal that Redditch Borough Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 123