ApplicationforCivilParkingEnforcement andBusLaneEnforcement

The Council of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne

“Newcastle City Council”

Introduction

Newcastle City Council is currently undertaking the necessary review of legal orders and condition of signage and carriageway markings. The current programme will see the completion of the detailed audit and review by the Autumn 2008.

Proposed commencement date

31 October 2008

Definition of CEA/SEA and excluded roads

The CEA/SEA will cover the entire administration area covered by Newcastle City Council, although following consultation with the Highways Agency and Northumbria Police the following length of highway will be excluded:

  • A1058 Coast Road from Corner House to the boundary with North Tyneside MBC (including all slip roads).
  • A167(M) Central Motorway East (entire length including all slip roads and the TyneBridge).
  • A167 North West Radial from the CME to Cowgate Roundabout (including all slip roads).
  • The A695 Scotswood Road (from the ScotswoodBridge to its junction with St James’ Boulevard.
  • A1 Trunk Road from BlaydonBridge to the Boundary with North Tyneside Council (including all slip roads and grade separated roundabouts).
  • A69 Trunk Road from the junction with the A1 to the boundary with Northumberland County Council (including all slip roads and grade separated roundabouts).
  • A696 Trunk Road from the junction with the A1 to its boundary with Northumberland County Council (including all slip roads and grade separated roundabouts).

Confirmation required that all off-street car parks owned by the district(s)/borough(s) council(s) are included within the proposed CEA/SEA.

All off street car parks owned (including those subject to lease agreements) by the City Council and which are subject to appropriate legal orders are included within the proposed CEA/SEA.

If military roads are not defined within the excluded routes the Department requires confirmation that this is the case.

There are no military roads within the CEA/SEA application area.

Map

A map illustrating the proposed CEA/SEA in included in Appendix A with a detailed list of the excluded roads.

TRO confirmation

Formal correspondence will be forwarded to the Department with regard to the comprehensive review of all Traffic Regulation Orders and the condition of all signs and road markings relating to parking restrictions.

The City Council would like the Department to consider dispensation with regard to completing all physical works within the 6 week period prior to the 31 October 2008.

It is necessary to replace all “fixed daily charge signs” within the city boundaries (comprising of some 3000 signs) and therefore failure to enforce these restrictions for a 6 week period could lead to indiscriminate parking and accessibility problems within the core city centre, residential areas and on the strategic highway network.

Alteration of equipment

A review of all parking meters, ticket machines, signage and tariff boards is being undertaken to ensure that all equipment is updated for CPE implementation. Consequently all equipment will make reference to Penalty Charge Notices.

Parking management strategies and policies

Parking Policy

Introduction

NewcastleCity experiences heavy traffic volumes and parking demand on a daily basis. To ameliorate this and to protect the general and residential environment, Newcastle City Council has adopted policies that aim to reduce the volume of car borne journeys particularly through the City Centre by controlling the availability of parking.

Newcastle is a busy and important business and financial centre, with a broad economic base spanning both manufacturing and service sectors. It is a combinationof these factors, which has led to an increase in the level of residential, leisure and commercial developments.

Newcastle covers an area of some 112 sq. km and serves a population of over 266,000. The area covers a busy City Centre and the City’s role is reflected most obviously in the form of jobs, shopping and entertainment. The City provides jobs for 143,000 people and 80,000 people enter the City everyday to work, while up to 100,000 use its pubs and clubs at night. The outlying area covers communities who have their own traffic and parking issues. These are particularly evident in residential areas and mixed use areas of residential and business.

For many years, Tyne and Wear has experienced a gradual decline in population. Like the whole Northern Region, it has suffered from a net level of out-migration to more prosperous regions. The Northern Way Growth Strategy is designed to improve the physical connectivity of the region nationally. Accessibility, and within this, parking policy, is a core part of rendering the city attractive both for businesses and residents.

A key dilemma for the Council is continually balancing needs with the potentially conflicting demands of a viable economy within a framework of Council policies. This dilemma is particularly difficult in the area of transport and air quality, which look set to remain critical policy areas for Newcastle.

Local Transport Plan Overview

The Local Transport Plan for Newcastle City Council is incorporated in a joint plan produced for Tyne and Wear for the five Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland.

The vision of Tyne and Wear is:

“To see Tyne and Wear continue to develop as an area where all residents have better access to a more prosperous, safer, healthier and more sustainable lifestyle in a more attractive environment”.

It is recognised that some of the challenges ahead include:

  • Car ownership (and hence car use) is rising with the percentage of households with no car falling from 51% in 1990 to 39% in 2006;
  • A significant decline in public transport patronage (Overall public transport boardings declined by 22% between 1996/97 and 2006/7)[1].
  • Declining bus patronage outside the main corridors is leading to the withdrawal of services, particularly in the evenings and weekends, reduced accessibility, worsening levels of social exclusion in some areas and for some members of the community, particularly elderly people;
  • The extent of maintenance needs on the highway network.
  • Further dispersal of population away from the main urban area leading to increased commuting

Transport Policy Objectives

The City Council seeks to coordinate land use and transport policies so as to reduce the need to travel and ensure that the means of transport used is appropriate to the journey undertaken. The objectives of the Council's transport policies are to:

  • Enhance and improve the environment, including improving air quality; ensure the continued attractiveness and economic viability of Newcastle.
  • reduce non essential, through and commuter traffic
  • increase priority to sustainable modes walking, buses, rail and cycling
  • Seek to reduce the number of cars accessing the city centre through better use of park and ride sites, and the consideration of implementing bus based park and ride facilities within the city.
  • improve accessibility and minimise traffic congestion;
  • control parking to reduce overall parking demand and increase the availability of space for essential and priority users;
  • promote development which supports more sustainable travel choices, interchange and reduces the need to travel;
  • Maintain and improve the quality of the townscape and physical environment.

The ability of the City Council's policies to achieve the objectives outlined above willdepend to a significant degree on the effectiveness of a traffic restraint policy, which is the key element of the transport strategy. Central to a traffic restraint policy is the effective and efficient control of on and off street parking.

Parking Regulation & Charges

Effective and efficient parking enforcement is the key to proper use of parking spaces. Improper use of parking spaces by motorists denies the use of designated spaces to genuine users, i.e. disabled drivers and residents etc while illegal parking on yellow lines hinders traffic flow, servicing and may impair safety.

People with mobility difficulties have a special requirement for car parking. Newcastle City Council is mindful of this need in the design of its car parks and provides conveniently sited designated parking areas, including a Shopmobility service.

Newcastle City Council requires the service to undertake the following duties and responsibilities:-

  • Providing a parking service that secures the safe and expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic, in order to protect the commercial viability and public safety of the City Centre and surrounding areas.
  • Providing the provision of suitable and adequate parking facilities both on and off the highway.
  • Regulating parking places in order to ensure the above.

The relevant Divisional Objectives and Targets as extracted from the Service Plan are:-

  • To maintain the public parking stock and infrastructure in an acceptable condition and to progressively improve to ensure the delivery of a high standard of service.
  • To operate a pricing policy that reflects current policy objectives.
  • To enforce in accordance with the regulations.

There are currently circa 10,000 public parking spaces within the City Centre, of which Newcastle City Council have responsibility for 9 city centre multi storey car parks, 8 free car parks and 42 pay and display surface car parks. In addition there are approximately 2,200 on street parking bays and 10,000 resident parking bays.

Residents Parking Zones

Newcastle City Council currently has 35 resident parking zones covering approximately 10,000 parking places. These are established by means of a Traffic Regulation Order and are regularly reviewed.

These schemes are often introduced following representations from the residents and provide control to areas where there are perhaps local businesses, commuter parking or close proximity to shopping centres.

In line with the School Travel Plan initiative it is proposed to introduce traffic management measures at strategic locations at school entrances and key pedestrian routes. This will help maintain road safety, improve accessibility and alleviate congestion during the busy school periods.

Newcastle City Council, alongside our Tyne and Wear partners through LTP are committed to delivering programmes of traffic management schemes, residents parking schemes and traffic calming initiatives.

Parking for Business users

A range of parking permits are offered to the business community. These are based in perimeter car parks and are not issued in City Centre ‘shopper and visitor’ car parks and do not allow on street parking. Permits offers have been developed with varying degrees of time coverage, both in terms of set hours or flexible times in line with identified customer needs.

Coach Parking

Newcastle offer a dedicated 17 space coach park located at Ord Street.

Safety and security

It is estimated that over 20% car crime occurs in parking areas. It is extremely important that Newcastle makes its car parks as free from crime and fear of crime as possible. We currently have 25 safer car parks covering 59% of spaces with a stated ambition to increase the number of car parks by 10% each year.

To contribute to this, over 95% of spaces are covered by our network of CCTV cameras.

Parking for people with disabilities

In addition to National concessions, Blue Badge holders may park in any payable space in Newcastle without charge or time restriction. Currently Newcastle has 11,000 Blue Badge holders and receives over 4,000 applications annually.

Abuse is tackled with vigour and a special campaign and hot line enable reporting of abusers who are investigated and prosecuted if appropriate. A local police liaison officer works closely to help us achieve this in advance of our ability to adopt the necessary inspection powers contained within section 94 of the TMA 2004.

Parking for motorcycles and pedal cycles

Motorcycles may park free of charge in all Council car parks and there are specific secure locations (16no) provided where demand exists. This provision is currently under review across the City to ensure that the capacity meets anticipated demand, with a programme currently being constructed to implement.

Cycle parking is provided by means of specifically located opportunities which are designed for the location. Cycle parking facilities are offered in 7of our MSCP’s. The Council will ensure that cycle parking is made available wherever public parking is provided and a review and programme of achieving this is currently being prepared.

Parking managementreview

Current Position

Newcastle City Council provides enforcement of the Local Authority’s off street surface and Multi Storey Car Parks.

On street parking enforcement is also undertaken in house that includes enforcement of all charge parking locations and fixed daily charge locations that provide parking for residents permit holders, loading bays, taxi ranks and disabled parking spaces.

The Newcastle City Council Parking Team forms part of the Environment & Regeneration Directorate based at the Civic Centre and Percy Street offices. The current structure of the team is as follows:

  • 1 Team Manager
  • 7 Parking Supervisors
  • 2 Team Supervisors
  • 8 processing staff
  • 57 Enforcement Officers

57 Enforcement Officers provide existing parking enforcement as above in Newcastle. This can be categorised into 24 surface staff that patrol on and off street car parking and 33 who staff the 9 MSCP’s.

In the region of 60,000 Excess Charge Notices (ECNs) and Fixed Daily Charge Notices (FDCs) are issued annually. These are processed internally by Newcastle City Council staff. Northumbria Police additionally currently issue in the order of 10,000 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) per year through a combination of Traffic Warden and police officer enforcement.

Current Enforcement Problems

The current enforcement problems are associated with the yellow line and other waiting restrictions. The ratio of City Council parking attendants compared to Northumbria Police traffic wardens is approximately 6:1.

This results in a higher degree of enforcement from the City Council in dealing with parking contraventions, particularly in residential areas.

As a result of this concerns have been raised by residents and key stakeholders (such as local ward members, commercial premises etc) that there is a lack of consistency with regard to enforcement issues.

In addition, the current arrangement prevents the Authority from having a composite approach to the implementation and enforcement of parking restrictions across the highway network.

Based upon research from similar Authorities It is anticipated that there will be an increase of 20,000 PCN’s issued in the first full year of CPE.

Scope of Review

A full audit and review of all Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s) is currently being finalised that has included:

  • A full appraisal of all orders, signs and markings including condition surveys and individual photographs.
  • Full consultation with local residents, businesses and community building in each of the 26 wards including a host of public meetings.
  • The development of a robust GIS system to record the location of all parking restrictions and associated signs and road markings.

An appraisal of the additional enforcement duties has been undertaken which is supported by a detailed business case outlining the financial implications and staffing requirements across Parking Services.

ICT systems are being reconfigured in preparation for Civil Parking Enforcement and new protocols have been developed in line with the operational guidance and statutory appeal requirements for the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Job descriptions for all staff have been revised in line with the new legislation and enforcement and notice processing requirements.

A comprehensive publicity campaign is ongoing with local residents, business operations and visitors to the city. These are detailed in the Publicity section below.

Parking Management Review

A detailed business case has identified that a further 7 Civil Enforcement Officers (CEO’s) will be required to accommodate the additional workload associated with enforcement. A further 2 notice processing staff will be required to deal effectively with notice processing and the statutory appeals requirements via the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

The Parking Services Section will also be restructured into 2 main areas:

  • Enforcement and Notice Processing.
  • Technical and Infrastructure Maintenance.

The enforcement section will be subdivided to ensure that informal representations and appeals are progressed in an efficient, effective and impartial manner. The new structure is tabulated overleaf.

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CPE application final @ 28 May08


1

CPE application final @ 28 May08

Civil Parking Enforcement

Explain the current level of parking provision in place for both on and off-street.

There are approximately 10,000 public parking spaces within the city centre with approximately 70% being operated by the City Council.

The parking provision as operated by Newcastle City Council is as follows:

City Centre Locations / Non-City Centre Locations / Total
On Street / 1828 / 303 / 2131
Off Street / 1907 / 449 / 2356
MSCP / 3541 / 3541
Park & Ride / 403 / 403
Total / 7276 / 1155 / 8431

The enforcement picture after the introduction of CPE

The over-riding objective of CPE is to establish a robust, legally compliant delivery of parking policy and regulation, which is fit for purpose, to help support the principles of the Local Transport Plan, contributing to the expeditious movement of traffic across the city. The key benefits envisaged are as follows: