Members had carried out a tour of the Breckland owned car parks in Dereham and returned to Elizabeth House for the meeting. 

An updated agenda and comments received sheet were tabled and time was given for Members to read the information prior to the start of the meeting.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Friday 14 October 2011.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 14 October 2011 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Mr G Bambridge, Mrs D Irving and Anthony Wright.

To note whether the Chairman proposes to accept any item as urgent business.

None.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests that they may have in the following items on the Agenda. 

The Members’ Code of Conduct requires that declarations include the nature of the interest, and whether it is a personal or prejudicial interest.

No declarations were made.

To discuss comments received.

The Committee Officer (Scrutiny & Projects) noted that a lot of the comments received concerned charging for parking and some people might attend the public meeting for that reason.  There would be another article in the local press raising awareness of the public meeting.

All comments would be logged and included in the final report to the Overview & Scrutiny Commission. 

With regard to responses from Stakeholders, there had been comments from the Orchard Surgery, but not from the Theatre Street Surgery.  Norfolk Constabulary had also responded, but Norfolk County Council Highways had not.

From the 7^th November, responsibility for civil parking enforcement had passed to the Norfolk Parking Partnership.  The Chairman asked to what extent they would monitor parking in Breckland.

Mr Duigan pointed out that the Partnership would only enforce on-street parking and would not be looking after the car parks.  He added that he had met with the Highway Surveyor to discuss some of the issues and one problem was that signage had to comply with very specific criteria to allow enforcement.

Mr Martin asked whether the public response stating that disabled parking spaces should be 10% was correct.  The Corporate Projects Manager said that when the Dereham car parks had been improved in the past, these were carried out in consultation with the Access Group and a town wide view had been taken on providing an agreed number of bays in the right locations.  Cowper Road car park was the only one improved and the Access Group had provided written confirmation that they were happy with those improvements. Cherry Tree car park improvements were not carried out due to lack of budget.

Mrs Spencer noted that there was no designated parking for mums with children and this was acknowledged, but it was also pointed out that providing extra wide spaces reduced the overall number of spaces available.

The Chairman was aware that in the current economic climate it would be difficult to make any changes, and that any suggestions made by the Group were unlikely to be implemented until the situation improved.

Members discussed the possibility that if the Council brought in fees it would provide money to make changes.  The Corporate Projects Manager advised that when this had been looked at previously, depending on the infrastructure costs to run car park charging and the operating policies selected; depending on enforcement levels and especially if short stays were allowed free, that there might not be much surplus money.

He also suggested that (subject to confirmation) the Group might like to consider publicising the fact that the Old Guildhall car park, which had barrier access during the week, was open to the public at weekends.  This would provide additional spaces for Christmas shoppers.

The Chairman felt that nothing more could be done until the Group had received information on the extent of enforcement to be undertaken by the Norfolk Parking Partnership and the intentions of the Council with regard to charging. 

To note the arrangements for the Public meeting on Tuesday 6 December 2011 at 7pm in the Anglia Room, Committee Suite, Elizabeth House, Dereham and to discuss the framework for that meeting.

The arrangements for the Public meeting to be held on 6 December 2011 at 7pm in the Anglia Room, were noted.