Issue - meetings

Report of the Corporate Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services), which sets out the results of the informal consultation, the statutory consultation and the recommended course of action.  A total of 570 businesses and residents have been consulted directly.  Twelve objections have been received and shown within this report.

Report of the Corporate Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) on the amendment of the restrictions in Hatfield town centre car parks.  The report noted that there are five car parks located in Hatfield town centre, which the Council are responsible for (Appendix A).  The Council is building a new car park next year in The Common.  Although additional car parking provision has been made to mitigate the loss of the 148 parking spaces, there will be 90 less spaces during the construction period of the Multi-Storey car park.  Businesses and residents have been consulted in respect of these changes and the Council will ensure that there is adequate parking provision for local workers, deliveries, customers and residents during this time.

The report set out the results of the informal consultation, the statutory consultation and the recommended course of action. A total of 570 businesses and residents had been consulted directly.  Twelve objections had been received and shown within the report (Appendix B).

Members discussed the following points:

·         Concern was expressed in terms of the proposals for The Common car park, it was felt that such discussions should not have taken place at other committees; proposals should have been debated by this Panel.

·         Closure of Link Drive car park was discussed.  The decision had been made at a Business Forum meeting to ensure that businesses have sufficient parking within the town, as it often gets filled with commuters.

·         Members discussed the cross party decision associated with the proposals for the multi-storey car park.

·         It was suggested that Market Square should be redeveloped and the car parks kept as present.

·         The loss of parking bays and disruption to residents and businesses was considered.  It was noted that Link Drive car park was currently unrestricted; if a permit scheme was introduced then only local workers/residents would be able to park here.  Being unrestricted, it provided parking for non-residents.

·         The Officer explained that further changes had been made to increase the number of 3 hours limited waiting bays from 26 to 117 and thus providing a further 61 parking bays to park up to 4 hours.

It was moved by Councillor S. Boulton, seconded by T. Kingsbury and

RESOLVED

(3 for and 3 against) The Chairman exercised his casting vote and it was carried (4 for and 3 against)

That the Panel consider the objections received in 5.1 to 5.12 of the report and in particular the issues raised in Section 16 around equalities and diversity and having considered all the detailed issues in the report including any proposed mitigating actions, recommends to Cabinet to proceed with the amended proposals (Appendix E) and the creation of the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for all the reasons set out in the report.