Waverley Borough Council Committee System - Committee Document
Meeting of the Executive held on 13/06/2006
East Street, Farnham Regeneration - Public Parking Provision
APPENDIX H
Waverley Borough Council
EXECUTIVE - 13TH JUNE 2006
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Title:
EAST STREET, FARNHAM REGENERATION - PUBLIC PARKING PROVISION
[Wards Affected: All Farnham Wards]
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Summary and purpose:
The purpose of this report is to review the policy on the provision of public parking following the granting of Landlord’s Consent for the revised Masterplan for the East Street, Farnham Regeneration.
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Environmental implications:
The nature, extent and location of public parking facilities will have environmental implications which will be considered as part of the planning process.
Social/Community implications
:
The social and retail vitality of a regenerated East Street area, will in part, be influenced by the accessibility of the area by both public and private transport. The right balance of transport modes will be critical to the success of the scheme.
Resource and Legal Implications
:
There are no direct resource implications of this report. Legal processes will be required for the appropriation of Housing Fund land at Riverside for the general purposes of the Council.
E-Government Implications
:
There are no implications in this report.
Financial Implications
:
There are financial implications in the capital cost of provision of additional parking outside of the East Street footprint and in the expected revenue stream which will be dependent on the level of parking provision and the tariff structure. These will be considered in the report.
Background
1. The Executive, at its meeting of 6th January 2004, considered a report on the level and location of public parking provision proposed in the redevelopment taking into account:-
·
public need;
·
revenue ambitions;
·
retail and social vitality of the regenerated area;
·
local planning policy;
·
national and local policies on car use restraint;
·
traffic movement; and
·
the local environment.
2. The report, which is reproduced at
Annexe A
for the information of Members, set out the strategy for the accommodation of the parking capacity displaced by the regeneration both permanently and temporarily during its construction.
3. The amended recommendation agreed was:-
that the Executive:
1. agrees, in principle, that the maximum parking provision of 300 spaces at the Riverside site, Farnham should be on a permanent basis to meet the needs of the long-stay user and the short-stay user displaced by the East Street Regeneration;
2. requests officers to report back on the capital cost of the works and seeks approval to earmarking the funding from the future East Street capital receipt;
3. agrees that the loss of the South Street Car Park short-stay capacity of 224 spaces be compensated for by the restructuring of the management of St James and Riverside I and the choice of appropriate tariff structures for the proposed East Street and Riverside II Car Parks; and
4. agrees that the appropriation of the Riverside II land shall be carried out subject to
the East Street contract becoming unconditional
, under Section 122 of the Local Government Act 1972, from use for purposes in accordance with the Council's function as Local Housing Authority to use for general purposes of the Council.
Revised Masterplan
4. The recommendation was made in the knowledge of:-
1. the capital receipt that was anticipated to result from the original Masterplan; and
2. the usage of the car parks in the East Street area at that time.
5. The Revised Masterplan and the escalation in construction costs of the development have resulted in a reduced expectation of capital receipt. At the same time, the emergence of more prescriptive flood risk and pollution management regulations have escalated the costs of construction of the proposed car parking at Riverside.
6. The usage of the public car parks in the East Street catchment area; Dogflud, St James, Riverside 1 and Riverside 2 has declined significantly since 2004 to the extent that on average, over 200 vacant spaces are available on a typical day.
Review of Parking Need
7. In light of the above, it is considered prudent to review the parking provision proposed in the 2004 report. The principal issue is the level of peak parking demand that a regenerated and revitalised East Street area can be expected to produce and whether that demand should be provided for in full.
8. It is first necessary to determine if the current reduction in parking demand in the area is permanent or the result of circumstances that will change into the future. The fall in parking demand has followed:-
(1) The relocation of the Health Centre and all its associated services to the Farnham Hospital site. The Primary Care Trust purchased 25 Annual Season Ticket Parking Permits from the Council for parking in Dogflud Car Park by its key staff. Many other employees, Consultants, support staff and patients accounted for a high level of casual Pay and Display parking.
(2) Some major commercial office tenants have recently relocated outside of Farnham leaving offices currently vacant. One of those formerly held 45 Waverley Parking Season Tickets for various car parks in Farnham, for its key staff. Many other staff paid-and-displayed. It is believed that up to 90 office staff may have been regular car park customers.
(3) Surrey Police has recently withdrawn all routine on-street parking enforcement in Farnham. The result is an increasing number of motorists choosing to park on street in contravention of the parking regulations. Extensions of Controlled Parking Zones (preferential parking for residents) planned by Surrey County Council have been temporarily shelved.
9. In relation to paragraph 8:-
(1) The retail floorspace including that of the proposed ‘anchor’ store is expected to employ staff and generate ‘footfall’ in excess of that relating to the relocated Health Centre.
(2) The existing vacant commercial office space is expected to be tenanted in the future, replacing that parking demand. Additional office and other commercial space, identified in the Revised Masterplan, is further expected to generate parking demand by employees, visitors and customers.
(3) Waverley is expecting to take control of on-street parking enforcement with effect from early 2007 and must provide a more robust and effective enforcement regime. The effect will be to displace much of the opportunist illegal on-street parking to the off-street car parks. Much of such parking can be found adjacent to East Street. In due course, Surrey County Council can be expected to introduce its Controlled Parking Zones. Its surveys suggest that the central Farnham CPZ would remove 110 to 120 vehicles to the off-street car parks.
The revised Masterplan includes for 294 dwelling units with one dedicated parking space per unit. It can be anticipated that average car ownership could exceed one per unit. This number of dwelling units can also be anticipated to attract a significant number of visitor cars.
Farnham Sports Centre
10. The Council plans to invest £1.8 million by 2008 on a major refurbishment of Farnham Sports Centre which is expected to re-vitalise the Centre and significantly increase the number of users, the majority of whom arrive by car. It is essential that these users are able to park at Riverside rather than the shoppers car park in the development.
Permanent Off-Street Car Parking Provision
11. The Revised Masterplan provides for 400 public parking spaces in one basement level car park within the developed footprint.
The Waverley managed spaces lost to the development are:-
South Street Car Park 224
Dogflud
228
Total 452
An additional 75 spaces are currently provided by a private operator on the former cinema site. In common with the current decline in usage of the East Street area and Waverley car parks, the private car park has on average, 50 daily users.
In order to replace the existing total off-street parking provision, therefore, 527 spaces would be required i.e. an additional 127 spaces off-site.
If this is to be provided at Riverside, the permanent provision there would need to be 227 (the existing temporary car park at Riverside provides approximately 100 spaces).
Temporary Off-Street Parking Provision
12. The first phase of construction will require the closure of Dogflud Car Park with the loss of 228 spaces. If temporary provision is to be made on a ‘like for like’ basis, the provision at Riverside would need to equate to that requiring a total of 328 spaces (100 existing) on that site. Constraints of the site might limit the possible provision to 300.
13. The construction phase itself could lead to an additional parking demand by the expected hundreds of construction workers unless the developer makes its own provision on-site or off-site.
Financial Implications
14. Under the Agreement, the developer is required to pay the Council a specified fee to compensate for loss of parking revenue during the construction phase. However, if no additional permanent off-site parking provision is made, the potential on-going year-on-year loss of parking income from the 52 lost spaces will equate, at current premium car parking rates, to £65,000.
If, however, those spaces are relocated to Riverside, the remoteness of that site from the centre of the retail and social activity will require that the tariffs are more modest. Estimated income from that number of spaces at Riverside would be approximately £35,000, reducing the potential income loss to £30,000.
Risks
15. Possible risks have been identified as:-
i. escalation of costs over estimates including greater levels of contamination than currently assessed; and
ii. creating an asset which does not meet the anticipated needs.
Farnham Urban Safety Management Study and subsequent discussions
16. At it meeting on 6th December 2005, the Executive considered and endorsed the above study. This followed an earlier consideration by the Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The study takes a wide view of transport and public domain issues in the town. Its proposals and options covered:
Options for consideration identified in the Action Plan
Traffic management
1. Set up a Farnham Development Group, to include Farnham Town Council, Surrey County Council and Waverley Borough.
II. Introduce a 20 mph speed limit in the centre of the town.
III. Manage the access of HGVs.
IV. Reduce The Borough to one lane.
V. Reduce the land width of Castle Street.
VI. Make South Street two way to the junction with The Borough.
VII. Make sure that physical measures are not intrusive in the street scene.
VIII. Where narrowing of the carriageway takes place, reallocate the space to pedestrians.
IX. Look at the best location for bus stops.
X. Improve the crossings at the bottom of Castle Street; South Street/Union Road; Union Road/Longbridge/Downing Street; West Street/Downing Street/The Borough. This could be done by removing some of the barriers and improving the space around the crossing for pedestrians.
XI. Improve cycling facilities in line with the Cycling Strategy.
XII. Carry out monitoring of the initiatives.
Accessibility
I. Set up a sub working group for community transport.
II. Consider “Park and Stride” using existing car parks at the Hart, Wagon Yard, Dogflud Way (or its replacement) and a new car park at the junction of Castle Street and Park Lane.
III. Develop a Parking Management Strategy.
Streetscape enhancement
I. Define an Historic Core Zone.
II. Consider ‘gateway’ treatments on all main roads into the town.
III. Develop policies for all aspects of the enhancement scheme, such as paving, signage and street furniture.
IV. The number of street signs should be reduced.
V. Consider a sympathetic lighting scheme.
There is clearly an overlap between this study and the East Street scheme. In the specific context of this report, the Study proposes the concept of a “Park and Stride” strategy. In practice this would mean the establishment of peripheral car parks on the main routes in to the town centre, that would attempt to intercept traffic and provide parking facilities in locations that do not encourage traffic movements around the town centre gyratory system.
The establishment of an appropriately sized car park at the Riverside location, with complementary pricing regime could be seen as a step in delivering the above strategy. This needs to be borne in mind when looking at parking provision in this area.
Conclusion
17. It is concluded that the under-demand for parking space in the East Street area of influence is not indicative of the situation that will obtain post-development. If the Council expects a regenerated and revitalised East Street area to generate additional parking demand and the Council wishes to provide for that demand, it will be necessary to supply the maximum permanent parking provision at Riverside. If the Council also wishes to provide ‘like for like’ parking provision to replace that lost during the construction phase, it will also need to make the maximum alternative parking provision at Riverside. The provision of the maximum permanent parking capacity at the outset would be the most economical and least disruptive option.
Recommendation
It is recommended to the Council that
1. 300 car parking spaces be constructed at Riverside for temporary and permanent parking needs generated by the East Street Regeneration Scheme; and
2. officers be required to report back to members for final authorisation after the scheme has been worked up and after planning processes, to assess the affordability against the overall East Street Regeneration Scheme.
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Background Papers
(DoEL
There are no background papers (as defined by Section 100D(5) of the Local Government Act 1972) relating to this report.
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CONTACT OFFICERS:
Name:
Robin Ellks
Telephone:
01483 523411
E-mail:
rellks@waverley.gov.uk
Stephen Thwaites
Telephone:
01483 523463
E-mail:
sthwaites@waverley.gov.uk
Brian Long
Telephone:
01483 523253
E-mail:
blong@waverley.gov.uk
comms/executive/2006-2007/028