Felpham Car Parks

Visitors and Residents are urged to comment on the consultation so the Council can make the best decision for the District.

Any comments on the variation of the charges must be received by us, no later than the 14 January 2022.

Submit your comments to : car.parks@arun.gov.uk

https://www.arun.gov.uk/news-archive/have-your-say-on-proposed-car-parking-increases-5000

If you would prefer to write a letter this should be addressed to; Arun District Council Parking Services, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, BN17 5LF and needs to be received no later than 14 January 2022.

Statement from Felpham Parish Council

“Felpham Parish Councillors and parishioners are somewhat shocked to learn that without ANY direct consultation or notification, car parks to which we have contributed £3630 per annum for over 25 years are being considered for charges to be applied.

Currently, as no business case has been produced it cannot be seen whether the proposal will actually cost ADC and its residents more and increase the current level of shortfall. Nor can we see where the installation and compliance costs will be funded from.

In addition, we are not privy to how the scheme will be operated, managed, installed, regulated, enforced and any timescales, nor how effectiveness will be monitored. There is no apparent baseline data collected to which all of these factors can be compared.

Given this is public money and for the large sums being mentioned, to not produce a business case is incomprehensible, Arun cannot venture into a project, spending or risking this amount of public money without demonstrating, as far as possible, that it will deliver. No organisation would ever think to proceed with a proposal without considering ALL factors that would positively or negatively  impact against profit or loss. 

Felpham Parish Council strongly OBJECT to you proposed introduction of charges to Grassmere Parade and Links Ave Carparks

  

1. Have ADC produced, and if so shared a business case that demonstrates what financial benefit they might gain from this?

 

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  clarifies that ADC do not use sinking funds or operate their car parks on a management account. Instead, using revenue and capital accounting. This clarifies that improvements to Felpham car parks will come from Arun’s capital allocation and NOT from our contribution made over many years. Thus, the comment from Cllr Gunner to a resident about £60,000 worth of work required (Grassmere 25/46 and Links Avenue 26/27) is erroneous and misleading. Such allocation will NOT come from charges raised by applying charges to Felpham’s car parks (or in that matter it seems any upgrade work to any car parks in Arun) but will come from their capital allocation which is based upon the Capital Assets Arun own. Crudely, we feel our car parks will wait their turn and be prioritised against other car parks in ADC and no amount of charges secured will change that priority;

2. Does the business case include the potential loss of income from the Parish Council, should we withdraw funding and whom currently contribute towards the free parking?

In Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  The impact of us removing our contribution does not seem to have been considered;

3. Does the business case demonstrate how many people would actually end up paying due to the length of stay and what charges would be imposed and how was this quantified? Please can we have sight of the report?

The Committee did not ask for a business case so it cannot be known whether the introduction of charges on our car parks will have the effect of reducing of current alleged deficit on our car parks of £4366 for Grassmere and £915 for Links Avenue. To eliminate the deficit, we have calculated that for Grassmere that they would have to sell 12 tickets per day for people staying over 2 hours and 3 tickets per day for Links Avenue. This rises to 19 tickets per day at Grassmere and 7 per day at Links Avenue, if we remove our contribution. However, this does not cover the additional revenue costs of monitoring those car parks, collecting cash etc nor does it cover the cost of installing machines. Where is the projection on income, how much is it expected to bring in, is there research to show this? How many cars per day would pay £1, how many will stay less than 2 hours and pay nothing?

4. Does the business case take account of the potential increase in on street parking this may cause due to people who use the car park for longer than 2 hours and is this taken into account your Off-Street Parking Strategy 2021-2026?

 

The fact that no impact assessment has been done on the application of car parking charges as part of any business case clearly shows that, the impact on the village or local facilities of applying car parking charges at the car parks is not currently a consideration by ADC.

5. Has a risk assessment been carried out to identify and determine any risk that might be associated with the potential increase of on street parking.

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  indicated it has not been done.

6. Does the business case consider the possible risk and loss of community wellbeing activities and classes in St Mary’s Hall, loss of trade to shops and businesses in Felpham as a result of these parking charges.

The fact that no impact assessment has been done on the application of car parking charges as part of any business case clearly shows that, the impact on the village or local facilities of applying car parking charges at the car parks is not currently a consideration by ADC.

7. Does the business case clearly and accurately demonstrate that the costs of implementing and monitoring any compliance with parking charges is sufficient to justify its introduction.

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  clarifies that ADC do not use sinking funds or operate their car parks on a management account. Instead, using revenue and capital accounting. This clarifies that improvements to Felpham car parks will come from Arun’s capital allocation and NOT from our contribution made over many years. Thus, the comment from Cllr Gunner to a resident about £60,000 worth of work required (Grassmere 25/46 and Links Avenue 26/27) is erroneous and misleading. Such allocation will NOT come from charges raised by applying charges to Felpham’s car parks (or in that matter it seems any upgrade work to any car parks in Arun) but will come from their capital allocation which is based upon the Capital Assets Arun own. Crudely, we feel our car parks will wait their turn and be prioritised against other car parks in ADC and no amount of charges secured will change that priority;

8. The contradiction to our local plan, adopted by Arun District Council.

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  does not address this

9. What would be the required contribution increase from Felpham Parish Council to retain their two parish located car parks as “ free of charge “.

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  does not address this.

10. In a recently seen email from Shaun Gunner to a Felpham resident My Gunner states "Currently this car park is free and over the next 4 years will cost Arun District Council c. £60,000 to maintain". Felpham Parish Council has not been furnished with any details as to what these works will be, how this figure was calculated, what the programme is and when will this commence?

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  clarifies that ADC do not use sinking funds or operate their car parks on a management account. Instead, using revenue and capital accounting. This clarifies that improvements to Felpham car parks will come from Arun’s capital allocation and NOT from our contribution made over many years. Thus, the comment from Cllr Gunner to a resident about £60,000 worth of work required (Grassmere 25/46 and Links Avenue 26/27) is erroneous and misleading. Such allocation will NOT come from charges raised by applying charges to Felpham’s car parks (or in that matter it seems any upgrade work to any car parks in Arun) but will come from their capital allocation which is based upon the Capital Assets Arun own. Crudely, we feel our car parks will wait their turn and be prioritised against other car parks in ADC and no amount of charges secured will change that priority;

11. Felpham Parish Council pays ADC circa £3600 per annum and has done since the early 1990’s. What has this contribution (towards the maintenance and to keep the car park "free") been used for? In this period there is no or little (weeding) evidence of any maintenance work being carried out. Surely this contribution for many years should have been put in a sinking fund to meet maintenance costs as they arrive?

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  clarifies that ADC do not use sinking funds or operate their car parks on a management account. Instead, using revenue and capital accounting. This clarifies that improvements to Felpham car parks will come from Arun’s capital allocation and NOT from our contribution made over many years. Thus, the comment from Cllr Gunner to a resident about £60,000 worth of work required (Grassmere 25/46 and Links Avenue 26/27) is erroneous and misleading. Such allocation will NOT come from charges raised by applying charges to Felpham’s car parks (or in that matter it seems any upgrade work to any car parks in Arun) but will come from their capital allocation which is based upon the Capital Assets Arun own. Crudely, we feel our car parks will wait their turn and be prioritised against other car parks in ADC and no amount of charges secured will change that priority;

12. In the same email to a resident Mr Gunner states "As nearly all other car parks have a charge, there is currently a subsidy from residents throughout Arun to provide free parking to residents in Felpham. As the Council for all of Arun, we have to take that into account whether that is fair." This fails to note or acknowledge the £3,600+ that Felpham Parish Council has paid ADC for many years to maintain free car parks and thus is factually wrong. The statement that Arun is subsidising Felpham residents is disingenuous and inaccurate;

Your response clarifies that ADC do not use sinking funds or operate their car parks on a management account. Instead, using revenue and capital accounting. This clarifies that improvements to Felpham car parks will come from Arun’s capital allocation and NOT from our contribution made over many years. Thus, the comment from Cllr Gunner to a resident about £60,000 worth of work required (Grassmere 25/46 and Links Avenue 26/27) is erroneous and misleading. Such allocation will NOT come from charges raised by applying charges to Felpham’s car parks (or in that matter it seems any upgrade work to any car parks in Arun) but will come from their capital allocation which is based upon the Capital Assets Arun own. Crudely, we feel our car parks will wait their turn and be prioritised against other car parks in ADC and no amount of charges secured will change that priority;

13. There is no evidence of the ring fencing of income received from car parking being used to increase the level of maintenance in car parks in Arun.

Many of the users of the car park, we envisage will need use of the car park for over 2hrs to fully enjoy the village, its hospitality, service industry, Church and St Mary’s Hall, so maybe a Disc scheme as is available in Bognor Regis Town Centre could be adopted to offer up to 4 hours free ?

Your response  From: Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021,  does not address this

 

Response from Arun District Council Officer : Calvin Baylis <Calvin.Baylis@arun.gov.uk> Sent: 16 December 2021, 

 

“The Environment Committee did not ask for a business case to be produced prior to going out for consultation on the parking charges proposal. The consultation will allow the residents traders and local organisations to comment on the proposals and highlight any impact.  All those comments, including your email, will be placed in front of the Committee who will then make a decision on the way forward.

The Councils Off Street Parking Strategy 2021-2026 requires the Council to optimise yield from parking in line with the corporate charging principles. In addition the Strategy seeks to maximise the use of parking spaces; this can be done by encouraging turnover of parking enabling more users to access parking spaces rather than a few dominating parking all day every day without control.  Where a charging regime is in place turnover of parking is encouraged.  In addition by requiring users to take a ticket this enables information in the use of the car park to be collated, and therefore can help understand and plan for how a car park can be better managed.

The Council has a capital program and does not operate a sinking fund for repairs and maintenance. There is a 5 year maintenance program for resurfacing car parks and the sum of  £35,000 has been allocated to Grassmere car park in the financial year 25/26 and for Links Avenue £25,000 in the financial year 26/27. The annual cost of maintaining both car parks is more than the contribution from the Parish Council which I have set out below. The council is not currently seeking an increase in the contribution.

Grassmere Car Park – 2021/22 costs

Income

Contribution Felpham Parish Council - £2420

Costs

Non Domestic Rates – £5863

Gully Clearance - £250

Ground Maintenance - £194

Water/Sewerage- £479

Annual total loss - £4,366

 

Links Avenue – 2021/22 costs

Income

Contribution from Parish Council – £1210

Costs

Non Domestic Rates - £1647

Water/Sewerage - £428

Grounds Maintenance £50

Annual loss total - £915

 

In addition to the annual loss the Council has spent the following sums in the last 2 years

 

Links Avenue resurfacing part of car park - £11,000

Grassmere Car Park Height barrier - £2,000

The Local Plan does not prevent the Council from introducing or varying parking charges. However the Council does need to seek West Sussex County council approval for introducing the charges. “

 

Unanswered questions as of 6^th January  2022

 

1. Your response clarifies that ADC do not use sinking funds or operate their car parks on a management account. Instead, using revenue and capital accounting. This clarifies that improvements to Felpham car parks will come from Arun’s capital allocation and NOT from our contribution made over many years. Thus, the comment from Cllr Gunner to a resident about £60,000 worth of work required (Grassmere 25/46 and Links Avenue 26/27) is erroneous and misleading. Such allocation will NOT come from charges raised by applying charges to Felpham’s car parks (or in that matter it seems any upgrade work to any car parks in Arun) but will come from their capital allocation which is based upon the Capital Assets Arun own. Crudely, we feel our car parks will wait their turn and be prioritised against other car parks in ADC and no amount of charges secured will change that priority;
2. Any charges levied on Felpham car parks will go into the revenue stream (as does our current contribution) of ADC. So, is this proposal is designed to reduce the overall costs of all car parks to ADC by increasing the income from the car parks ?
3. The Committee did not ask for a business case so it cannot be known whether the introduction of charges on our car parks will have the effect of reducing of current alleged deficit on our car parks of £4366 for Grassmere and £915 for Links Avenue. To eliminate the deficit, we have calculated that for Grassmere that they would have to sell 12 tickets per day for people staying over 2 hours and 3 tickets per day for Links Avenue. This rises to 19 tickets per day at Grassmere and 7 per day at Links Avenue, if we remove our contribution. However, this does not cover the additional revenue costs of monitoring those car parks, collecting cash etc nor does it cover the cost of installing machines. Where is the projection on income, how much is it expected to bring in, is there research to show this? How many cars per day would pay £1, how many will stay less than 2 hours and pay nothing?
4. When will the charges be further reviewed, is this an annual process ? Is this part of your better management plan ?
5. The impact of us removing our contribution does not seem to have been considered;
6. Has a consideration been made by Arun that will enable an increased contribution from Felpham Parish Council to keep parking free of charge at both Car Parks ?
7. The fact that no impact assessment has been done on the application of car parking charges as part of any business case clearly shows that, the impact on the village or local facilities of applying car parking charges at the car parks is not currently a consideration by ADC.
8. The fact that no business case has been produced means that our other questions asked directly (i.e. not through an FOI) continue to be simply be placed in front of the committee to take into account if they so choose.
9. What has been expended on the carparks by Arun over the period since the early 1990’s, for which Felpham Parish Council has been paying ?
10. If there is a 5 year maintenance program in place then it is fair to assume the car park was resurfaced in 2020, 2015, 2010, 2005 and every 5 years prior to that. I am unaware of any works of this scale being carried out, yet over the period from the 1990’s to 2021 FPC have contributed a significant amount of money to pay for the car park to remain free and it is fair to assume that some of this should have been used for the upkeep of the Felpham car parks.
11. What are your future plans for the Felpham carparks maintenance plans and expenditure after 2025-27, are any further works anticipated ?