North Derbyshire council considers options to improve residents' car parking - including loan scheme for people to develop driveways

Labour-led North East Derbyshire District Council discussed its Parking Strategy at a recent council meeting and what is planned with its annual Housing Revenue Account budget allocation of £280,000 to support parking improvements on estates where the council is the primary owner of properties.

Conservative Cllr Alex Dale, as part of a motion for the council to consider, urged the Labour administration, to continue with the previous Conservative administration’s parking strategy, to commit to maintaining the HRA £280,000 budget allocation, and to consider a loan scheme for tenants to install driveways.

Cllr Dale told the meeting: “What I am really asking here is that we do not lose sight of the fact that: a.) Parking is a significant issue for a lot of our residents; And b.) we have powers, we have the ability, to do things about that, particularly where we are the principal and primary landowner and we have a lot of council-owned properties.”

He added that the design of council properties built many years ago did not allow for the fact that by now families have a lot more vehicles than previously.

Cllr Dale also said that he has been contacted by residents who would be happy with a council loan scheme to pay for the installation of a driveway which meets planning regulations and they can subsequently pay the council back.

NE Derbyshire District Council Leader, Cllr Nigel Barker, said: “The car parking programme is still under review. We are open to consider the motion but I need to make clear that the proposal to loan HRA money to tenants is not straight-forward. It’s complex and has its challenges.”

Cllr Barker also expressed concern about any loan scheme because some people have already benefited from parking support already, while others would now have to get a loan to improve their parking situation.

He added that there is also a mix of tenants with some who own their own homes on many estates and may not be able to benefit from off-street-parking schemes and this may create complications.

Cllr Barker said he feels the fairer solution would be to have HRA-payers and non-HRA payers in mixed areas to perhaps be subject to projects funded by both the district council and Derbyshire County Council.

He submitted an amendment to the continued review of the council’s Parking Strategy with the suggestion that the district council requests match-funding from the county council with a view for the district council cabinet to consider before reporting back to the county council.

Green Party Cllr Frank Adlington-Stringer said there had been a successive failure by previous administrations to improve public transport infrastructure and that Cllr Dale’s proposals were actually forcing people into further vehicle ownership.

He added that the loan scheme was making residents choose between a garden or a driveway.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ross Shipman said he did not agree with the loan scheme because he feels the council would be putting people in debt.

Labour Cllr Kevin Gillott reminded the council that the Parking Strategy is only at the review stage, and Liberal Democrat Cllr David Hancock said he had some concerns about the loan scheme, and Labour Cllr Joseph Birkin said he supported Cllr Barker’s amendment.

The council voted in favour of Cllr Barker’s amendment to Cllr Dale’s motion on the grounds the council will continue to review parking particularly on council-owned land where there are mainly council-owned properties.

In addition, it was agreed that it be noted some tenants are willing to install their own driveways but the problems with mixed tenure will have to be considered where HRA funding is to be used but one solution might be for joint district and county council funding.

Following a further vote on the complete amended motion, the council agreed to maintain the yearly £280,000 budget allocation for parking, invite cabinet to consider introducing the loan scheme for driveways, ask the county council to support match-funding for such parking projects, and to bring any reports to Full Council meetings.

Conservative Cllr Charlotte Cupit said: “Bit disappointed by the amendment, but overall we would support this motion because we should be focussing on getting the Parking Strategy going again.”