Venue: Ground Floor Committee Room - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions
Contact: Laura Wilson Senior Governance Officer
No. | Item |
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Councillor Sue Johnson - leave |
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Declarations of interests Minutes: None. |
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Confirmation of Validity of Call-In PDF 219 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Brian Parbutt (Chair) explained the procedure for the hearing to the attendees. He outlined the reasons for the call-in and requested the Panel to confirm its validity.
RESOLVED to confirm the call-in request as valid on the following grounds:
(1)
Inadequate consultation relating to the decision: (2)
Relevant information not considered: (3)
Viable alternatives not considered: (4)
Justification for the decision open to challenge on the
basis of evidence considered: |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: Following the report of the Head of Legal and Governance, the Committee was asked to:
a)
consider the information provided in relation to Delegated Decision
3063 – Trinity Square Multi Storey Car Park Blue Badge
Discount Removal, and the reasons given for requesting a call-in of
that decision and use that information
to inform questioning and discussion; and b) focusing on the reasons for the call-in request form, and based on the evidence available to the Panel, decide: i) to require that the decision is reconsidered, and make recommendation(s) as to what should be taken into consideration; or ii) that the decision does not need to be reconsidered and can be implemented.
Councillor Sally Longford, Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhood Services and Local Transport, who had taken the Delegated Decision, informed the Panel of the reasons for taking the decision:
(a)
the Council has had to make significant
savings in order to achieve a balanced budget. This saving was
identified in consultation with Council officers; (b)
Trinity Square is the only Council-owned multi-storey car park
which retains free parking for blue badge holders after this was
removed from Fletcher Gate car park some years ago; (c)
there is significant provision of free
parking for blue badge holders for up to 4 hours on the streets in
the surrounding area. There will still be disabled spaces available
at Trinity Square but they will no longer be free; (d)
this decision will mean that a member of
staff will no longer need to be based at the Trinity Square car
park for blue badge validation. This member of staff will now be
able to be more flexible; (e)
consultation has been carried out with the Disability Involvement
Group and the Disabled Employee Support Network; (f) Nottingham has one of the most comprehensive and accessible public transport systems in the country;
Councillor Andrew Rule (one of the call-in signatories) outlined the reasons why the call-in had been requested:
(g)
the networks that have been consulted do not necessarily represent
the current disabled users of the car park; (h)
Disability Direct Nottingham have made a written submission urging
that a more in-depth impact assessment with disabled people and
carers and for wider consultation to be carried out than with the
Council’s own disability groups; (i)
some residents have complained that the Easylink bus service is
unreliable and makes cancellations at short notice; (j) the appeal of Nottingham as a visitor destination for disabled people from outside the city will be diminished as a result of this decision;
Councillor Sally Longford raised the following in response to the points raised:
(k)
formal consultation with the wider
public is yet to come so all citizens will be able to respond to
the proposals. This will include a media campaign; (l)
no problems have been reported recently
regarding the Easylink bus service. There were some
issues some time ago when the service
was restructured but these have now been resolved; (m)neighbouring local authorities such as Derby City
Council and Mansfield District Council have also withdrawn their
Blue Badge concessions, as have most other parking providers in the
city. The exception is Intu Victoria Centre who still provide free
parking, subsidised by rents from the shopping centre; (n)
this proposal will displace an estimated
30 users per day and there are 192 spaces available in nearby
carparks as well as 1397 bays of on-street parking. Blue Badge
holders can also park on single or double yellow lines for up to
three hours for free; (o)
experience from the Fletcher Gate car park demonstrates that the
disabled parking spaces continue to be used, despite no longer
being free; The following answers were given to Panel members during the discussion which followed:
(p)
in addition to the media campaign,
signage will be displayed at the car-park informing disabled
customers of the changes. There will also be a 15 minute free
period where they can decide to leave the car-park if they do not
wish to pay the charges; (q)
Trinity Square has barriers and so requires a member of staff to
validate passes against Blue Badges, whereas the other car parks
where free parking will remain do not have barriers and are policed
by parking enforcement officers; (r)
Parking Services do not have records of all Blue Badge holders in
the city, but will investigate if this information can be obtained
from the Licensing Department so that they can be individually
consulted as part of the wider consultation; (s) the proposal has already been covered by the Nottingham Post, and there has been very little response by email or social media.
RESOLVED to agree that Delegated Decision 3063 - ‘Trinity Square Multi Storey Car Park Blue Badge Discount Removal’ does not need to be reconsidered and can be implemented for the following reason:
· consultation has taken place with the Disability Involvement Group and the Disabled Employee Support Network, and further consultation is to take place with the public. There are a number of alternative parking spaces on streets in the local area and the Panel did not feel there was evidence that this would have an impact on wider traffic flows within the city centre.
Councillor Andrew Rule requested that his vote against the resolution be recorded. |
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Exclusion of the Public To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item(s) in accordance with 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regarding to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. |
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Consideration of Call In Request Relating to Delegated Decision 3063 - Trinity Square Multi Storey Car Park Blue Badge Discount Removal - Exempt Appendix |