Decision details

The report will detail the council’s approach to parking offers for Christmas 2016 and make recommendations on the delegation of such decisions in the future.

(i) Approve that all pay and display parking in the city centre and peripheral parking zone will be free after 2pm on the three Saturdays leading up to Christmas 2016 (10, 17 and 24 December 2016); and

(ii) approve that, in future, decisions on temporary parking offers be delegated to the Head of Strategic Transport and Infrastructure in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member and key stakeholders.

The Council wishes to provide support for retailers in the city at a very important time of the year. The consensus of stakeholders is that they would wish to see the continuation of the free parking offers which have been made in the previous two years.

The recommendation to delegate future decisions of this nature to the Head of Strategic Transport and Infrastructure is made in the interests of being able to respond rapidly to the wishes of stakeholders and providing a shorter decision making timescale in future.

The Council could maintain its current tariffs throughout the festive period, but this would not provide additional support to retailers in the city at an important time of the year for their businesses.