| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Hounslow Council to put up council tax next year... | |
| Posted by: | Samantha Christie | |
| Date/Time: | 12/12/16 02:11:00 |
| The matter of income from CPZs was discussed at the Housing & Environment Scrutiny Panel. Here is the report that went. http://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/s124246/CPZ%20briefing%20final%20100316.pdf To consider the issue in more detail, this report (http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/parking_and_traffic_enforcement_report_2015.pdf) for 2014/15 shows that parking, which includes income from permits and also PCNs, accrued a net income to the council of around £7.5m, permits of all types equating to around £2m of that figure. The outgoing costs on paying for the administration of blue badge applications and concessionary fares (freedom passes) for this same period was £9.3m. So in total the council made a net loss in the service area. The income accrued to us through the sale of permits is therefore very small in terms of the council's overall finances. Looking at the issue in more detail, and to take the example of a recent scheme we have implemented for around 650 properties (namely Brentford North CPZ extension) we calculated that the one-off cost of the scheme - capital expenditure on lines, signs etc; officer time; traffic regulation orders etc - it was in the vicinity of £50k. The income from permits from that first year was around £18k. It therefore can take a fair amount of time for a scheme to be paid back and of course there is no guarantee of that as we can't make people buy a permit. What we haven't included is any ongoing costs associated with the potential maintenance and review/alteration of a scheme, administration of permits, enforcement etc. I would therefore state categorically to anyone that asks that we do not implement CPZs for profit. Our motivation stems entirely from the desire of residents for us to control access to parking spaces on their roads in their favour, although as discussed in the report that went to scrutiny there are also some other positive policy implications of their provision. We only commence the process of consulting on them when we have a petition from residents to do so. They then go through at least two and usually three rounds of consultation taking between 12 and 18 months. We only then go on to implement them when there is majority support for a scheme. I would also say that looking at neighbouring boroughs prices (Ealing, Richmond, Hammersmith) we are still a fair bit cheaper than them. Finally in my ward- Bedfont- we dont have any council CPZ- and yes we are one of the most deprived (unfortunately) and when I talk to people on the Waterloo estate- the next road from me where parking is tough as a result of people parking there to save money using the train station car park- residents on thw waterloo estate are worried about the cost of the scheme so despite taking a long time to find parking for financial reasons they will vote against it- so in the poorer parts of the borough we do not have as many CPZ |