Parking permissions for commercial vehicles (FOI)

Request

Parking Control - use of pay card spaces by works vehicles

A

I would like sight of the policy / guidelines / criteria which grants permission for private works vehicles such as builders, painters, carpenters and others to park in pay card spaces in excess of the normal permitted time period.

B

What is the purpose of this policy, when was it drawn up, and how often is it reviewed?

C

How is this permission granted; in writing, verbal and so on. At what level of officer authority is permission granted?

D

How is the consent policed to ensure compliance with the policy, including ensuring that full payment is made in the use of pay cards throughout the day?

E

What assessment is made, when granting permission for works vehicles to use these spaces, upon members of the general public, residents and so on, especially when permission to use 100% of the paid parking spaces in any area, is given?

F

What notice is given to businesses in the area, especially those engaged in retail and hospitality, given the denial of these spaces to the public and others and therefore affect their trade, for days or even weeks?

G

Is any time limit placed on the period that these pay card spaces can be occupied?

This refers to the generality. I am seeking to understand how these permissions are managed. For, example are extensions granted for an hour over the permitted limit, a day, a week? How are the circumstances judged? The works vehicles in New Street appeared to have been given permission to park there for the duration of the job, which exceeded one week. Can for example, an applicant ask for two weeks, one month and so on.

H

What measures are taken to ensure that there are no alternatives and that the owners of works vehicles are not using these spaces as convenient parking, for example parking there all day but they do not regularly access them for tools, equipment, or any other reason?

I

What consultation takes place with the Parish of St Helier, given that users of its services are those most affected?

J

Why does the Minister consider the policy of granting permission for two works vehicles to use the only two pay card spaces in an area of New Street fair, to the detriment of other users, and to the impact this might have on local shops and cafes?

K

So that I can understand the prevalence of the problem in town, how many times has permission been granted to use pay card spaces by works vehicles in the Parish of St Helier this year to the end of September 2019?

L

What is the estimated spend on pay cards by such works vehicles over this year up to the end of September?

M

What is the estimated loss / gain on pay cards / PaybyPhone spend given the denial of such spaces to other uses.  I am content for this particular part of my question to relate to the two spaces in parking area 85757 in New Street.

N

Will the Minister introduce a permit that must be displayed in the window of each vehicle, granted these parking privileges, showing basic information which can be read and understand by the public, frustrated that parking spaces are being used in this manner, if, not, why not.

Response

A

The following criteria are taken into account when considering requests from commercial vehicles for extended periods of parking to facilitate works in St Helier.

• the layout of the street concerned – width, volume and type of usual traffic movements and so on

• the number of parking spaces available

• any other permissions given for the same street / area

• any other permissions given for the same site / job

• the type of vehicle permission is being requested for; only commercial vehicles will be granted permission

• only one vehicle will be granted permission per site / job

• daily permission required – permission not given for longer than one day

B

This is a historic customary process which predates the current management and staff. It was verbally agreed and not formally documented, however the process was last reviewed in 2009.

Your Freedom of Information Request has highlighted the need for the transport section to carry out a further review of this process.

C

Each request is considered on a daily basis by the officer manning the parking control room with the customer being advised verbally as to whether permission has been granted.

D

The vehicles are required to pay for their parking using the usual payment methods (eg scratch cards / pay by phone) for the full duration of their stay.

The extension permissions granted are recorded in a daily log book and the relevant information is provided to the Parking Control Officers (PCOs) who are tasked with patrolling the areas concerned each day.

The PCOs will carry out random checks throughout the period that the permissions are valid to ensure that vehicles have not parked beyond the period agreed and that relevant parking charges have been applied.

E

When considering a permission request the Parking Control section of Growth, Housing and Environment will take into consideration the criteria listed in response A above.

Under normal circumstances only one vehicle will be allowed per job, however there may be exceptional circumstances where more vehicles are granted permission. This is rare and is usually due to emergency works such are drain blockages or similar.

Having reviewed the permissions given for the works referred to in New Street it appears that an error was made when following the assessment process which resulted in two vehicles receiving authorisation for the same area at the same time.

An analysis of this oversight will be included in the pending review of our process, as mentioned in the response to question B.

F

At present no notification is given to local businesses as permissions are often requested at short notice, however, this will also be considered as part of the planned review of the process noted in the response to question B.

G

The permissions must be requested on a day by day basis to allow for consideration of other planned works.

In the event that works take longer than a single day, further requests must be submitted daily for each additional time period required. This is to ensure that any new issues that may become a factor are also considered.

Please note that many of the permission periods granted are for hours rather than days.

H

Alternative areas for parking works vehicles are considered where possible, particularly if the vehicle concerned has access to a nearby car park.

The demand for on street parking permissions for commercial vehicles in the north of St Helier has increased following the closure of Ann Place and Charles Street car parks.

Each request is assessed on an individual basis with access requirements for large tools, bulky equipment or specific materials such as large glass sheets or specific materials being carefully considered. Policing of the use is monitored as detailed in the response to question D.

I

The Parish of St Helier (POSH) are aware of the issuing of daily permissions in order to facilitate works to both domestic and commercial properties within St Helier, however no daily consultation takes place unless there is a specific requirement for this.

The POSH operate a similar scheme for works within the Resident Parking Zones which they administer.

Additional information regarding the POSH scheme may be held by the parishes, therefore you might wish to send your information request in writing to: foi@parish.gov.je

or to: Parish FOI, East Wing, RJA & HS, Trinity, JE3 5JP

You can also find out more about making an FOI request to the parishes at https://parish.gov.je/Pages/FOI.aspx

J

As the daily issuing of such permissions is an operational matter the Minister is not consulted.

See response to question E.

K

The log books contain data regarding a large variety of parking matters, not just notes of permissions granted. Given the time already spent dealing with this request we estimate that carrying out a manual search of the log books will take us in excess of the 12.5 working hours allowed to respond. This part of your request, therefore, will not be processed further.

L

We are unable to provide this information within the 12.5 hours allowed for Freedom of Information responses as we would need to review each permission individually as they are not all granted for a full day, with many issued for short periods between 1 to 4 hours.

M

The vehicles are charged for the duration of the permission granted. However, we do not record any losses or gains which result from the authorised parking extensions.

N

The introduction of a permit scheme has not been considered due the practicality of issuing a physical permit given that the majority of permissions are requested at very short notice.

Article applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.