Councillors will next week discuss how we’re making parking simpler and fairer for people in Brighton & Hove.
Members of the Transport and Sustainability Committee will be presented with three reports on parking when they meet on Tuesday 6 February.
One of which will be a Parking Customer Services update which details the significant progress that’s been made so far, and how more improvements are on the way.
Committee members will also discuss the Parking Annual Report which details performance and financial information from the last year and Fees and Charges for 2024/25, which sets out what the council will charge for services for the year ahead.
The reports come after councillors were updated last month on the progress made since a parking review was requested last summer.
Listening to residents
Councillor Trevor Muten, chair of the Transport and Sustainability committee said: “We’re determined to improve and simplify parking across Brighton & Hove, which is why we called for a city-wide parking review last year.
“We know from listening to residents and hearing the experiences of visitors, there are things we can do differently, but I’m pleased that we’ve already made excellent progress to modernise the service and make our systems easier to use.
“We wish to thank residents of the five light touch parking zones who gave a clear response to the recent consultation. We’ve taken on board feedback we received from residents on converting light touch parking schemes to full schemes. We are listening and I’m pleased that we are not going to implement changes to these parking zones and we’ve been able to halve a planned increase in cost to all light touch areas.
“Parking will also play a huge role in reaching carbon neutrality. Our plans to significantly increase the number of electric vehicle charging points will support the growing number of EV both now and in the future.
“Like other councils across the country, we are facing an unprecedented financial challenge. The funding we get from the government is not keeping pace with inflation, and growing demands for council services.
“Nobody should underestimate the scale of the financial crisis we are facing which is why we are having to make some very difficult decisions when setting Fees and Charges for next year.
“Our parking review sets out to simplify parking in Brighton & Hove, making parking more equitable, accessible, inclusive and work well for residents, for visitors and for the prosperity of the city as a whole.”
The achievements so far
A project began in late 2019 to design and implement new parking systems that would do things like improve the customer offer and experience, modernise the service, meet the demand for online self-service, raise staff satisfaction and allow for more consistency and flexibility.
Since August last year, all parking permits are now available to purchase online. Resident and Visitor permits can be purchased through MyAccount.
The work has also led to fewer complaints and a significant reduction in waiting times for those contacting the team by telephone (from over 33 minutes at the end of 2021 to 2 minutes 22 seconds between January and October 2023).
Coming soon
Work is continuing to further improve our parking services for local residents and businesses.
This will include developing:
- Improved options for people who are digitally excluded including keeping physical options where possible.
- A ‘monthly payment’ model that will allow customers to spread the cost of parking permits over monthly payments.
- ‘Virtual’ permits, reducing the need for paper permits and enabling customers to be covered immediately when their permit is activated.
- Automatic address verification through Council Tax records, making things easier for customers, more efficient for the council to deliver, and more robust against fraud.
More information can be found in the Parking Customer Services update report.
The 2022/2023 Parking Annual Report
Every year, the council is required to produce a Parking Annual Report.
The report shows that, again, the council spend over £10m of its parking surplus on providing older and disabled people with concessionary bus passes and more than £1.6m on supporting bus and other public transport services.
The report also shows there are more than 2000 electric vehicles now registered in Brighton & Hove supported by the city’s 250 lamp column chargers, 55 fast chargers and 12 rapid chargers.
If funding bids are successful, we plan to install a further 1650 chargers across the city over the next three years.
More information about parking, including enforcement action can be found in the report.
Setting fees and charges for 2024/2025
Members of the Transport and Sustainability committee will also be presented with an annual fees and charges report.
It will recommend:
- Following feedback from residents, halving a planned increase in the cost of light touch parking schemes
- Increasing the majority of fees & charges for on-street and off-street parking, including permit prices, by an average of 6%.
- Removing the ringfence of income from parking in Preston Park and East Brighton Park to support wider council budgets and initiatives.
Light touch parking schemes
Letters were sent to residents in five light touch parking zones last year, asking them whether they wanted to remain in a light touch parking scheme or convert to a full scheme. Of those who responded, the results can be seen below.
Full details of these results will be presented to the Transport & Sustainability Committee in March.
|
Stay Light touch, responses and % of total responses |
Convert to Full Scheme, responses and % of total responses |
Total number of responses |
Area S |
397 |
72.4% |
151 |
27.6% |
548 |
Area P |
599 |
93.2% |
44 |
6.8% |
643 |
Area L |
605 |
87.2% |
89 |
12.8% |
694 |
Area U |
320 |
79.6% |
82 |
20.4% |
402 |
Area W |
347 |
74.1% |
121 |
25.9% |
468 |
As a result of the feedback we received from this consultation, the proposed changes to light touch permit prices are lower than originally put forward.
Residents permits - Light touch (Zones L,P,S,W,U,X,10,11 & 12) |
2023/24 |
Original proposal |
New proposal |
Yearly resident permit - Standard Emission Vehicles |
£131.40 |
£193.45 |
£164.25 |
Yearly resident permit - Low Emission Vehicles |
£98.55 |
£146.00 |
£124.10 |
Yearly resident permit - High Emission Vehicles |
£229.95 |
£335.80 |
£284.70 |
More information can be read in the Fees and Charges for 2024/25 report.