Closed petition STOP the government extending car park charging hours from 8AM-5PM to 7AM-6PM.

Ministers responded

This response was given on 21 November 2019

The Government has amended the original proposal and is now proposing to extend chargeable parking hours until 6pm and increase the unit cost of parking by 5p.

Deputy Kevin Lewis, Minister for Infrastructure, recognises and is sensitive to the concerns raised in the petition to stop the Government extending car parking hours from 8am to 5pm to 7am to 6pm.

In fact, this Government Plan measure had not been finalised. While the Minister had agreed to the principle of £700,000, he was still to decide how this could be fairly achieved and wished to undertake further analysis. The extension of car parking charging hours was one of the options being evaluated. This was noted in the Plan itself by the words “While the Minister supports the value of this efficiency, the precise nature of delivery is subject to further analysis by officers.”

Since the petition was started, an amendment to the Government Plan has been lodged by Deputy Labey calling for the Government Plan to be altered and not ‘include any extension of standard car-parking charging hours from the current 8am to 5pm to 7am to 6pm (as was initially proposed in ‘Efficiencies Plan 2020-23’ (R. 130/2019))’. However, no alternative method of achieving the equivalent income was offered and the proposition made the assumption that the budget would therefore be reduced by the equivalent amount.

In effect this amendment is calling for the same outcome as your petition.

Having reviewed Deputy R Labey’s Amendment and listened to the arguments put forth within the petition and elsewhere, in conjunction with the further analysis by officers, the Minister has brought forward a compromise measure to achieve the same outcome:

1. Extend chargeable hours from 5pm to 6pm only (so if a customer parks at 8.30am in a long-stay car park and returns to their vehicle at 5.30pm, they would not have to pay for an additional unit of parking).

2. To increase the unit cost of parking by 3p over the annual RPI(Y) increase of 2p, resulting in a total increase in the retail cost of parking for 2020 of 5p per unit.

Therefore, it is proposed the retail cost of parking is increased by 5p per unit, from 85p to 90p, and that chargeable hours will run from 8am (as before) to 6pm (an extension of one hour on the previous arrangement). The early morning extension has been dropped in order to lessen the effect on those living in St Helier.

The matter has been discussed at the Council of Ministers and they support the compromise as pragmatic alternative to the original proposal, which recognises the concerns raised by Deputy R Labey, the petition and elsewhere, and is consistent and complementary to Government policy.

A third of the Island’s carbon emissions arise from road transport.

Of the approximately 10,000 vehicles that travel to St Helier each workday morning approximately 8,500 are single occupancy. Fundamental to reducing these carbon emissions is encouraging people away from single occupancy cars to shared journeys or public transport.

The cost of parking is fundamental to the relative attractiveness of other travel choices. To be financially sustainable and to maintain service levels bus fare have to increase by inflation, thus in order to encourage more sustainable transport choices parking charges will have to increase above the rate of inflation.

A new Sustainable Transport Policy is being developed which will contain a number of measures and incentives to encourage and support sustainable transport. This proposal is intended to complement the forthcoming Policy.
Although no parking charges increase is welcomed by customers, it should be noted that nationally, the 2019 UK average hourly fee for off-street parking is £2.08. In Jersey, it is currently 85p with the proposal to increase to 90p.
The money generated from parking fees and fines is used primarily for the upkeep of the 81 car parks across the Island, operational costs and investment in future parking provision. The commercial return to the States from the investment in the car parks has from 2016 been used to fund sustainable transport initiatives and bus passes for persons with a disability and it is intended that this will also continue.

Since 2008 the cost of parking has risen 20% above the rate of inflation (approximately 12p). The rises included in this above inflation amount were the result of States decisions to introduce (and increase) GST in 2008 and 2011, in 2010 to use the Car Park Trading fund to raise funding for the Eastern Cycle Network and as an increased financial return, and in 2018 to pay Parish Rates on States of Jersey’s properties, including the car parks.

Minister for Infrastructure