Ilfracombe parking charge hikes will stand as cash ‘is vital’ for county schemes

Plans to raise on-street parking charges by as much as 50% in some parts of Devon including Ilfracombe will not be reversed, a meeting has decided.

Six Liberal Democrat councillors including three from North Devon had challenged their own ruling administration’s plans to raise the charges, but a committee meeting today (Wednesday, October 22) has voted to abide by the decision.

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It means Ilfracombe will see a 50% rise on parking costs in Portland Street, St James Place and Wilder Road during the October 1 to April 30 off season, with two hours increasing from £1 to £1.50 and four hours from £2 to £3. In summer, a maximum two hour stay would also increase from £2 to £3, with an hour going up 10% to £1.10.

The county council is only responsible for on-street parking – car parks are covered by district councils where they are council-run.

The recent review and decision to increase charges was signed off by Councillor Dan Thomas, the cabinet member for highways and also included steep rises for parts of Totnes and Exeter.

For the rest of North Devon and Torridge, the increases have been less.

The council defended its decision today, saying the roughly £4million in cash raised was vital for funding a host of highway-related schemes, including bus routes and verge cutting.

Cllr Thomas told the meeting said any surplus funds from on-street parking charges had to be used on ‘very specific areas related to improving transport’ and could not legally be used for anything else.

He said the idea behind the increase was to encourage drivers to use off-street car parks and added that county council rises are directly influenced by district council parking charge rises, meaning hikes by district councils almost inevitably lead to higher on-street charges eventually.

Clr David Cox, one of the six councillors who called the decision in, backed the fears about the impact on residents’ finances.

He said: “I appreciate car parking charges are a small part of a cumulative effect.

“I think we need to look at the charges and the cumulative effect on the high street and on residents, as we are here for the people of Devon and I would ask that we re-examine the charges and the policy of linking them to off-road charges imposed by districts.”

North Devon councillors Caroline Leaver, Syed Jusef and Ed Tyldesley also put their names to the call-in motion, as well as Rosie Dawson and Alan Connett.

Today, while not overturning the decision, the corporate infrastructure and regulatory services scrutiny committee did request that the cabinet review the policy, specifically to look at the frequency of future car parking charge adjustments as well as the maximum price cap.

The idea behind this was that if prices were altered annually, then the maximum cap might be able to be lower.

The committee also asked the cabinet to continue to work with district councils on parking charges and to identify any available data that could support future decisions on parking fee changes.