Agenda item

Parking enforcement

PN asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Communities, Highways and Strategic Transport:

During this time of lockdown and tier 4 measures when people are being furloughed, told to work from home where possible and to only go out for essential travel, how can the Council justify still proceeding to issue parking tickets to vehicles that are parked outside a residential area i.e. Plumptre Square within the City as long as the vehicle is still parked in a parking bay and not illegally?

Councillor Rebecca Langton replied as follows:

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank the member of the public for their question.  The question asks about how we have been enforcing parking during the lockdown, and makes specific reference to Plumptre Square in the City Centre.  We recognise the effects of the Covid pandemic on residents and businesses in the City, and our approach to parking enforcement has taken this into account.  Throughout the pandemic, parking enforcement has followed Government advice and been in line with guidance from the British Parking Association.  In line with that advice parking enforcement was reduced at the beginning of the first lockdown in March last year.  When lockdown was eased we had a steady return to enforcement, targeting disabled bays and hotspots in the City Centre to ensure the safety of Nottingham people.  No new guidance has been issued by Government for Tier 4 or for this lockdown, so we continue to enforce to ensure the free-flow of traffic and prevent dangerous parking.  This is the primary function of parking enforcement.  In the City Centre, Traffic Regulation Orders are in place to help get the balance between the many hundreds of people who live within the area and others who are visiting.  Different ways of parking, including ‘one hour free’ bays encourage short trips to small businesses and are a key part of keeping the City Centre economy thriving at difficult times.  Traffic Regulation Orders cannot be switched ‘on’ and ‘off’, which means we can’t just decide they are no longer needed and turn everything over to residents’ parking.  As such, Parking Regulation and Compliance will continue to enforce restrictions to support the City and its desire to keep traffic moving and keep people safe.  For example, during the Autumn term, the React Team, a specialist team within Parking Enforcement who deal with parking and traffic flow around schools, have been more needed than ever.  With fewer people using public transport, their role in helping to ensure the safety of parents, children and local residents at drop off and pick up times has been crucial.  They have continued to work on the frontline in challenging times and I am sure we would all like to place on record our thanks to them. 

The question references Plumptre Square specifically.  This area has a number of one-hour bays, double yellow lines and nearby pay and display parking.  Although traffic has reduced, the parking restrictions in these and other areas are legal orders, which remain in place regardless of other restrictions.  I am aware that the Councillors for the Castle ward, representing the City Centre, Park and Castle Marina, are taking steps to balance parking between those visiting the City Centre and those who live within it.  For example, they have recently introduced extended residents’ parking bays on Cliff Road and improved residents’ parking on Carter Gate.  Castle ward Councillors are very much willing to look at parking arrangements where they can, so I would encourage the resident who has asked this question to contact me or their ward councillors directly so that we can look into this issue specifically.  In a general sense we are seeing significantly higher traffic flow in the City Centre in this lockdown than in the first one and we will continue to enforce to encourage safe, legal and free-flowing traffic whilst making every effort to take into account the challenging circumstances facing us all.  Thank you again to the resident for their question and I would be very happy to take up the specifics directly. 

Decision making
TW asked the following question of the Leader of the Council:

Decisions taken by the City Council have led to the irresponsible introduction and then collapse of Robin Hood Energy (with 230 jobs lost and £38.1million down the drain), an embarrassing national government investigation into the mismanagement of the authority, one of the worst levels of Council debt in the country (over £1.1billion and counting), chaos surrounding the dilapidated Broadmarsh Centre and more latterly the ill-thought out decision to hold a Christmas market during a global pandemic. As residents of the City this has seen our money wasted, our jobs lost, our facilities left in ruin and our health put at risk. Consequently, the City’s reputation nationally has suffered as a result.  I am sure the Leader agrees – Nottingham deserves better. Will he therefore apologise and offer a guarantee that in the future decisions made by himself and the Portfolio Holders will be competent, transparent, and of a standard befitting the trust the people of Nottingham place in the Council?

Councillor David Mellen replied as follows:

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank the citizen for this question.  There can be no doubt that 2020 was a difficult and extremely challenging year.  The issues listed by the questioner are important and significant and, of course, have come on top of an enormous amount of work that we have had to do to support our City through the impact of the Covid pandemic over the past year.  Dealing with these challenges and pressures has not been easy and, particularly where Covid is concerned, I think it is important to recognise once again the huge collective response not just from Council staff but also from key workers, local communities and businesses which has shown Nottingham at its best, stepping up to try and protect the health and wellbeing of our residents including those who are most at risk from the virus. 

On the specific points raised by the questioner, I can indeed give the assurance that the Council will make changes where they are needed and will do as much as it can to address failings of the past and improve our standards of transparency and decision making.  We have already begun the process of achieving this.  In 2019 we took decisive action to start the process of closing down Robin Hood Energy (RHE) and to begin a controlled exit of the business from the energy market, which has seen the Company support 116 RHE staff into new jobs and given domestic and business customers choice in successfully moving their accounts to a new supplier.  It is important to emphasise, however, that Robin Hood Energy did not collapse.  Rather, we took the decision that in the prevailing financial climate we could no longer provide the necessary support to the Company and have worked hard over the last few months to manage the process in a way that will provide the best outcomes achievable for our customers, employees and creditors.  Robin Hood Energy was set up with the best of intentions to try and tackle fuel poverty and the widespread disquiet over the way that the energy market was operating at the time.  But we of course very much regret the past failings of the Council’s governance of the Company over the several years since its formation, which I have apologised on behalf of the Council for.  The subsequent Public Interest Report by the External Auditor into Robin Hood Energy clearly exposed serious issues which the comprehensive Action Plan that the Council put in place last year is already addressing.  Further action will be taken to improve and transform the Council over the coming months as a result of the separate Non-Statutory Review carried on on behalf of the Government.  While this work will be difficult and challenging, I am pleased that the Non-Statutory Review Report expressed confidence in the current leadership to take forward the necessary course of action required.

With regard to the Broadmarsh Centre, we were faced with different circumstances, not of our own making.  At the start of 2020, good progress was being made on the redevelopment of the Centre, but the pandemic pushed former owners Intu into Administration and the site was handed back to Nottingham City Council in the present state.  2020 didn’t work out how anyone planned and that was certainly the case for the Broadmarsh Centre.  This has, however, presented us with an unexpected opportunity and in our consultation on the future of the site more than 3000 responses have been put forward as to how the Broadmarsh site might be reimagined.  In the year ahead we want to see these ideas developed into a masterplan for one of the most significant city centre development sites in the country. 

On the subject of the Christmas market, given that outdoor markets were allowed under the Covid restrictions in place at the beginning of December, a wide range of measures were put in place to follow available guidance together with plans to control access and to help monitor and manage the number of people attending the market site at any one time.  We perhaps didn’t anticipate how many people would be in the City Centre on a fine day at the end of the previous period of lockdown and, as things turned out, the numbers were too large to implement our planned measures effectively.  Our intention was to help support the local economy and bring some festive cheer to people in the City Centre in a safe, managed, outdoor way as part of the re-opening of non-essential retail after the second national lockdown.  Public safety was always first and foremost in all decisions taken and when it was clear it wasn’t secure a decision was made to close the market.  Councillor Trimble and his staff team took the right decision at that time and public apologies were issued.

Clearly there have been many substantial issues and challenges that we have had, as a Council, to address since I became the Leader nineteen month ago.  It has been a turbulent few months, not just for Nottingham but for the country as a whole, and we are working as hard as we can to get the best possible outcomes for Nottingham.  Looking ahead, there will be further difficult decisions to be made, with a tough budget to set, a Government inspection report to respond to and the need to look ahead to ensure financial stability is our biggest priority in the long term.  Our main financial challenges – austerity and the impact of Covid – are shared by councils across the country.  We will aim to protect key services as far as we are able, while having to rethink the scope of what the Council can provide.  The Covid infection is very much still with us, with our hospitals under pressures and vaccinations only just started.  Lockdown adds fear and uncertainty as to how citizens feel about the year ahead, but that doesn’t mean we will lose ambition to do the best for Nottingham.  We will remain absolutely committed to being a carbon-neutral city by 2028 for example, and have made excellent progress towards this target already with our far-ranging action plan.  We are really pleased to have secured £161million in grant funding to carry out major transport improvements like expanding the electric charging point network to encourage take-up of electric vehicles, promoting safer cycling routes as well as a new footbridge with cycle lane across the River Trent to encourage active travel, linking parks and communities north and south of the Trent. The development of Trent Basin in Colwick, which will be home to brand new schools, is not the only housing development we can look forward to over the coming months.  We are expecting to build a further 300 council houses in 2021 and there are plenty of other developments underway or in the pipeline.  The Island Quarter is an exciting scheme that brings businesses and houses together on a large site that has been derelict for years, there is further development planned in, and around Sneinton market, and new offices and houses in the South Side.  Our own development schemes south of the City will continue and I think 2021 will be the year when we see how transformational they will be.  The old Broadmarsh car park is being replaced by a modern building much more befitting of the City gateway.  The work that will carry on in the streets around it will transform the look and feel of the area beyond recognition.  At one end we have the wonderful new Nottingham College building and at the other the redeveloped Nottingham Castle attraction.  2021 is the year when many of these changes will come together and the Castle will re-open, while we plan how the Broadmarsh Centre will complement and enhance these developments.  The many features which saw Nottingham named by the Sunday Times Magazine last year as one of the best cities in the country are still here: excellent public transport; popular universities; a vibrant arts and music scene; and, although severely affected by Covid, an excellent hospitality sector and Purple Flag accredited night-life; more Green Flags for our parks than nearly anywhere else, which have been vital to people’s wellbeing during the lockdown; and a UNICEF-backed bid to be a Child Friendly City, which will give people in Nottingham hope for the future.  With a difficult year behind us, there is much to look forward to in the new year ahead but we will, of course, use the lessons we have learnt from the events over the past year to continue to improve the way we work and have a Council that serves the people of Nottingham in a way they can be proud of.