Parking Recommendations 2008

BARNET RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

Proposal for Revision of Parking controls in High Barnet

Summary

This is the first of three papers to be submitted by Barnet Residents’ Association (BRA) that address issues that we believe to be material to the economic success of High Barnet town centre. These submissions are based on the views of local residents who took part in a survey carried out by the BRA earlier this year.

This paper considers the issue of car parking, and makes a number of recommendations that seek to facilitate greater use of the town centre by shoppers. High Barnet, located on the northern edge of the Borough and within easy driving distance of shopping centres outside the Borough that offer free and convenient parking, must be subject to a parking regime that acknowledges this competitive challenge. Specifically, we propose:-

• That designated parking areas adjacent to the High Street (including at the Library) are set aside for short-term use, and priced attractively;
• That, where residents would not be unduly inconvenienced, additional spaces within walking distance of the High Street be made available for all-day parking, to meet the needs of those who work in the vicinity of the High Street or wish to walk to High Barnet station.
• That the early-evening restrictions on parking on the High Street are reconsidered, or substantially clarified, so as to reduce the numbers of penalty notices issued to unsuspecting motorists.

We believe that these proposals could increase the numbers of shopping trips to the High Street without inconvenience to other stakeholders, and not only would they not prejudice LBB income from parking charges, but could significantly increase income.

Background

1. BRA is strongly committed to improving the welfare of our town centre. To this end we carried out a survey earlier this year of 1600 households all within one mile of the town centre, of whom 300 responded. This high response rate of 18.75%, achieved without the use of SAEs, demonstrated the concern of local residents, and has given a clear indication of what deters shoppers from patronising the town centre and what areas need to be addressed to improve matters. The results of the survey are at Annex A.

2. The council will be aware of our concerns regarding the tired appearance and lack of vibrancy and commercial viability of our town centre. We have expressed this view on numerous occasions at meetings of the Residents’ Forum. The three other residents’ associations active in the area, Barnet Society, Hadley Residents Association and SPACES have, at various times, expressed similar concerns.

3. We had been led to believe that we would be able to feed various aspects of the results of this survey into a Town Centre Review, which we, along with the other residents’ groups, all understood was to be carried out in the near future. We now understand that no such review will take place for the four individual town centre causing concern; all we have is the broader strategic review of town centres in the borough and applications for development in High Barnet will be judged in the light of that. We are disappointed that the review will not happen, but this makes it all the more important that initiatives arising from our very specific local survey are given proper consideration.

4. Whilst there is nothing London Borough of Barnet (LBB) can do to directly attract the type of shops and other commercial outlets which residents would like to see in the High Street, there is a lot that can done to make the centre more attractive to shoppers and potential traders. As our survey shows, in some areas the actions of the council are a definite disincentive to users of High Barnet town centre. Specifically, we have identified three key areas where the LBB could make a positive contribution. These are:

a. Parking arrangements

b. Traffic Management

c. The appearance of the High Street, in particular in the Conservation Areas.

This paper addresses the first of these - parking. In due course we aim to submit further papers on the other two areas.

Parking

Public Perceptions

5. Over 50% of respondents to our survey choose to do their main shopping elsewhere despite High Barnet being the town centre closest to where they live. A majority indicated that they choose to go to Potters Bar, London Colney, New Barnet or Borehamwood. Some were influenced by the availability of cheaper food stores, but easily accessible and cheap or free parking played a major part in their decisions. Parking in High Barnet is perceived as being difficult for access, expensive and overly prescriptive in the exercise of control over minor misdemeanours. Although the Spires car park charges are significantly cheaper than those for nearby short-term street parking, they are still perceived by many as expensive, and the internal layout of the Spires is strongly disliked as being difficult for drivers to navigate. Given the strength of feeling exhibited in our survey responses it is clear that parking inadequacies exert a significant disincentive to those who might otherwise do more of their shopping in High Barnet. Traders in Barnet Town Centre have expressed similar concerns about the effect of parking controls on trading and their views were made clear on the front page of the Barnet Times (10.7.2008).

The Council’s parking strategy

6. Until relatively recently the Council operated a blanket regime of standard charges across the Borough. Whilst the high charges imposed might correlate to charges in surrounding areas in the south of the Borough, the same is not so in the north of the Borough, where High Barnet’s charges are much higher than those in surrounding town centres.

7. The Council did recognise that there was a problem, the main car parks in Fitzjohn Avenue and Stapylton Road routinely had large numbers of empty spaces, and came up with a solution - but alas only a partial one -by substantially reducing the all-day charge to £3 in the three car parks in High Barnet town centre. However, the high short-term charges remained, and the measures have led to car parks being used predominantly by commuters (whether town centre workers or station commuters), with reduced availability for shoppers. In the streets around the town centre that allow an element of pay and display parking, utilisation by short-stay parkers remains poor because of these very high short-term charges.

8. The other major strand of the council’s approach to parking has been the ever-expanding CPZ regime to protect residential streets from being overwhelmed with commuters or shoppers. Whilst in principle we support the need to protect residents, there are indications that the interests of residents have been pursued to the exclusion of wider considerations. In some streets, particularly where residents all have drives, there is evidence of overkill as the streets remain almost totally devoid of cars throughout the day.

9. We have therefore had a series of piecemeal initiatives that appear to have sought to address specific problems but fail to take account of the needs of the town centre from a strategic viewpoint. We welcome the indications from the options put forward on p18 and 26 of the Core Strategy Issues and Options paper that LBB has begun to consider an overall parking strategy, and indeed one that encourages a "shopping core" with a high turnover, with town centre fringes available for other commercial use. A regime which encourages High Barnet residents to park and shop in High Barnet, rather than travel to other centres, might also contribute to a reduction in traffic growth. Whilst we will comment fully on that paper in due course we consider that the parking problems in High Barnet are such that an urgent separate review is needed.

10. Specific problems that we now believe need to be addressed are:

i. High short-term parking charges based on a Borough-wide approach that fail to take account of local circumstances

ii. a piecemeal review that has led to a reduction of all-day charges in car parks but has failed to take account of the needs of other users

iii. a piecemeal approach to protecting residential streets by extending CPZs, without taking account of the wider needs in the area

iv. an apparent failure to consider the impact of expensive pay-and-display street parking on the level of utilisation, with a consequent failure to maximise income

v. over-complicated waiting restrictions on Barnet High St that confuse motorists and result in a high number of parking fines.

A parking strategy review

11. We suggest that the following issues should be taken into account, with the adoption of a strategy that provides a better balance between

i. the need to provide affordable short-term parking facilities to encourage shoppers to use the town centre, not drive them away

ii. the need to protect the interests of residents around the town centre so that their streets are not overwhelmed with cars during the daytime

iii. the need to provide commuter parking for workers in High Barnet town centre

iv. the need to optimise parking charges in a way that will maximise income without damaging the commercial viability of the town centre.

12. We are confident that such a review would produce substantially different parking arrangements from those now in place, and could not only produce a better outcome in terms of the economic interests of High Barnet, but should also increase the council’s revenues from parking charges.

13. A framework for proceeding would be to clearly identify areas around the town centre that could be designated for particular parking needs, specifically:

i. Short-term parking for shoppers

ii. All-day parking for commuters

iii. Protected residential streets where parking should be limited
We have a number of specific proposals to offer for consideration.

14. For short term parking, the LBB car park in Stapylton Road, all the spaces on the High St itself (apart from the disabled bays) and Wood St (between the Church and Stapylton Rd) should be designated short stay only (maximum 3 hours). Along with The Spires car park, this would create an easily understood ‘inner zone’ intended for the convenience of shoppers. Charges should be competitive with other shopping centres in neighbouring areas. To compete with Potters Bar the first hour should be free, with the second and third hours 50p and £1 respectively.

15. For commuter parking, an "outer ring" with spaces to be chosen to minimise potential conflict with residents. Commuters only need to be within walking distance of their places of work (or the station), and a walk of 5 minutes or so at the beginning and end of the working day is not a great imposition.

16. We envisage continuing as now with Moxon St./Victors Way and Fitzjohn Ave car parks offering the £3 all day parking. The spaces in Stapylton Road would however be re-designated for short-term parking. They have been heavily used by commuters since LBB reduced the all day charge to £3, and would need to be substituted elsewhere to meet the needs of all-day parkers and to sustain LBB’s parking revenue. We have monitored the Stapylton Road car park over three weeks and (apart from Wednesdays and Saturdays where there has been a temporary change because of the market) 50 of the 63 spaces are usually occupied by all-day parkers and business permit holders. We suggest that there are a number of streets in the vicinity of the town centre where there is little parking at the moment and where the all-day on-street parking charge could be reduced to £3. The all-day parkers who would be displaced would thereby be provided with alternatives and LBB revenues would be maintained. We believe that around 115 such spaces are readily available. A list of potential locations is at Annex B together with the basis for their selection.

17. For residential streets currently within designated CPZs we envisage little change, with the higher £4 all-day charge continuing to apply, although some
reduction in the exceptionally high short-term charges could provide a further boost to short term use. Most of these streets generally have plenty of room during the day. Reducing short-stay charges might also take some of the pressure off ‘free’
streets such as Puller Rd. and Byng Rd.

18.Consideration could also be given to turning the Library car park on Strafford Rd. into a short-term pay and display car park. At the moment the majority of spaces are fenced off for use by staff but these are substantially under-used. If the whole car park was available for public use there should be a boost to the Council’s income while avoiding any criticism that the Council was levying high charges on the public to park in the area whist itself sitting on empty space, at a cost to the taxpayer. Library staff could be issued with permits to allow them to park in the Library car park or the immediate area.

19.We would also like to see a review of confusing or misleading waiting restrictions. We cannot see any good reason for the early evening restrictions on the parking spaces in the High St., a source of considerable confusion for motorists that produces a high number of penalty notices. This is not conducive to the appeal of the shopping centre.

Conclusion

We cannot emphasise enough our view that the parking regime in High Barnet is a major factor in deterring shoppers from using the town centre. There is widespread agreement that our High St is struggling and needs all possible help to get it thriving again. The Council could significantly improve matters by addressing these inadequacies in the parking regime and developing a fresh strategy. We therefore urge the Council to take this issue on board and initiate a review urgently.

END

August 2008