Issue - meetings

An update on progress against the Parking Strategy, one year on.

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability submitted a report that summarised the progress on the East Herts Parking Strategy, which had been adopted in January 2025. He said that there had been extensive consultation in 2024, and the aim of the strategy was to make parking rules simpler and more consistent whilst supporting longer term sustainability and behaviour change.

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that the strategy was not solely focussed on parking services, and it brought together actions and resources from across the council and different partners.

Members were advised that the strategy was underpinned by three objectives, which were (A) support the take up of environmentally friendly vehicles and sustainable alternatives to driving, (B) take a balanced approach to parking to make it fairer, easier and more consistent across East Herts and (C) adopting a more considerate approach to managing parking services throughout East Herts.

Members were advised that each of the objectives was underpinned by several individual actions. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that Appendix A detailed a number of strategic objectives and progress had been made in several areas. A number of the objectives were strategic in nature and were designed to encourage long term behaviour change and modal shift.

Members mentioned parking tariff reviews and car park capacity, relating to BA4 and CA3, and whether there would be a period of monitoring after the prices increases in April to how this had impacted on dwell time, car capacity and behaviour change as well as monitoring of the impact of increases in parking on residential roads in town centres.

The Committee also mentioned CA5 in the context of a review of parking enforcement in terms of whether this would include on street parking. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability touched on the limited Civic Enforcement Officer (CEO) resource and said that the council used this APCOA resource as efficiently as possible. Requests for ad hoc inspections were accommodated where possible and the aim was to ensure a visible presence when CEOs were out on site and there was an impact.

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that the council needed to reinstate the footfall reports that related to town centres so that there was a before and after comparison. He said that questions around modal shift were extraordinarily difficult to answer and there were initiatives whereby people were rewarded for using alternative modes of transport. Members were advised that a couple of schemes were being explored for secure electric bike stores where expensive bikes could be stored securely.

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that dwell times had reduced dramatically in Apton Road and Basbow Lane car parks in Bishop’s Stortford, and the dwell time in Northgate End had increased. He said that a third phase of the strategy was charging on an emissions-based tariff structure.

Members commented on the responsiveness of the parking team in the context of requests from councillors or residents for support across East Herts. Some  ...  view the full minutes text for item 380