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ITEM EX10A

PARKING ON BUS ROUTES – SCRUTINY REVIEW

Introduction

1. This report gives my views on the recommendations from the Environment Scrutiny Committee to the Executive and my suggestions on the next steps should the Executive be minded to accept the recommendations.
2. The Scrutiny report is well researched and compelling. Regular, reliable, high quality bus services are key to achieving many of the aims of the Local Transport Plan as well as the stretch targets for bus services in the Public Service Agreement being negotiated with the government. From this point of view, I see the Scrutiny Committee recommendations as helpful and have no problems with their content or aims.
3. My concerns are about the resources needed to implement the recommendations – both money and staff – and the impact on programmes already being worked on if the Scrutiny recommendations are added to the existing workload. The two major areas of concern are;

• The proposal to introduce a Special Parking Area for the whole of the county,
• The various proposals for specific locations which taken together add up to a substantial amount of work.

4. This is by far the biggest project in the recommendations and would introduce decriminalised parking enforcement as we have in Oxford to the whole of the county. Enforcement of bus lane regulations by camera technology is not that strong a justification by itself for such large project. But there are other sound reasons for having a countywide SPA that combine to make a powerful case for doing this – these are

• Ensuring that parking policies are implemented effectively and support the objectives of all our various transport strategies – eg parking and effective management of parking are key components of Integrated Transport Strategies being developed in the county towns;

• Ensuring successful operation of Premium Bus Routes, and other bus routes, by effective enforcement of parking regulations;
• Enabling improved traffic flow on busy roads, better management of overall traffic levels, fewer accidents, a fairer distribution of available parking places, and a more pleasant environment;
• Anticipating that before too long Thames Valley Police will want to rid themselves of the task of parking enforcement as several other police forces in the South-East have done.

5. I prepared a paper for the Scrutiny Committee setting out the issues involved in introducing a countywide SPA and have attached this as Annex 1. The headlines are that it would need a dedicated project team to do this at an estimated cost of something like £1m, have to cover the annual running costs which might be as high as around £5m a year, and require the involvement of the District Councils.
6. My conclusion is that decriminalised parking throughout Oxfordshire is achievable but requires considerable time, money and political commitment to put it in place. If it is decided to accept this recommendation from the Scrutiny Committee, much more detailed work needs to be done to define, plan and finance this project. I suggest that the way forward is for the Executive to accept the principle of an SPA and ask me to prepare a more detailed feasibility report, which can be used as part of budget planning process for 2003-04.

Various Proposals for Specific Locations Identified as Trouble Spots

7. My Special Projects Team has contacted the bus companies to check on what they see as the problems and has had an initial look at all the sites mentioned. The conclusion from the work is that there are a range of ways in which these trouble spots can be tackled.

• Some are relatively small projects that might be done by Area traffic teams;

• Some are within the scope of studies being done at the moment which will lead to schemes within future capital programmes – for example, Premium Bus Route studies and Oxford corridor studies;
• Some could be done as ITS schemes.

8. But there are sufficient schemes outside of these possibilities to add up to a significant workload that at the moment has no identified budget provision to get them done by using consultants and which, if we tried to do them with in-house staff, would mean putting aside other high priority work such as residential parking schemes in Oxford. Some of the suggestions made will not be straightforward to accomplish because of a need to balance competing interests at a location. This will make them time-consuming projects. We also need to look at the best solution to each site because our initial visits have shown that those suggested in the Scrutiny Committee report will not necessarily cure the problems identified. For example, some bus bay problems are due to their being too small rather than solely due to parking problems.
9. My suggestion is that the Executive accepts the list of sites in the Scrutiny Committee report as requiring some action but asks me to identify the best solutions and agree how and when we might be able to programme these projects with the Executive Members for Transport and for Strategic Planning & Waste Management.

Other Scrutiny Committee Recommendations

10. I have already increased the parking enforcement in Cowley Road and London Road/Windmill Road from within the number of parking attendants that we have authorised Control Plus to recruit. I do not believe it is necessary to increase the staffing of Control Plus beyond the number already authorised.
11. I agree that we should write to the Chief Constable as suggested.
12. The designation of bus lanes in Magdalen Street, George Street, High Street and Castle Street is already being planned to coincide with the introduction of camera enforcement of the bus gates. (Some details of the proposals for Magdalen Street and George Street need to be looked at to make sure legitimate access to some lengths of road is not isolated by the bus lanes).
13. I will nominate a contact officer to be the manager of requests from bus companies for actions to remove problems at any further sites that my be identified.

RECOMMENDATIONS

14. I endorse the recommendations in the Scrutiny Review report but RECOMMEND that:

1. approval of the principle of introducing countywide decriminalised parking enforcement be subject to the Director of Environmental Services carrying out a feasibility study into the costs of implementation and operation; and
2. approval of action at individual sites being subject to the Director of Environmental Services agreeing the most appropriate solutions to problems at the respective sites following consultation with the bus companies, and agreeing the programming of these in consultation with the Executive Members for Transport and Strategic Planning & Waste Management.

DAVID YOUNG
Director of Environmental Services

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Richard Dix Tel: 01865 815663

October 2002

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