Cornwall Council has opened a little noticed consultation on a proposed small amendment to an off street parking order. The consultation was opened on 12 November and closes on 3 December.
The amendment covers two small issues:
Towan Headland car park in Newquay:
There has been a long running controversy over this car park being used for long term parking of motor homes where people have been essentially living in them. The car park was devolved by Cornwall Council to its wholly owned development company, Treveth, who appointed a private sector parking company to carry out enforcement of parking restrictions. Now, the Council is proposing to take the car park back into the control of the Council and incorporate it into its Cornwall wider off street parking regime.
Car parks at Langarth and Tregurra that are the bases for the park and ride service that serves Truro:
In a statement by Cornwall Council about the future of the park and ride service following the withdrawal of First Bus from Cornwall, a spokesperson said, “Truro park and ride is a service contracted by Cornwall Council and will continue to run. We are currently in discussions with operators and will provide an update for passengers when we can.” The council has also announced that it is undertaking a public consultation for a proposal to introduce a £1 daily charge for those who wish to park at Tregurra or Langarth, but not ride on the buses. “This will help support the maintenance of the car parks. The charge will not apply to passengers using the park and ride service,” added the spokesperson.
There is no explanation of how the £1 parking charge will be collected or enforced. It would seem unlikely that the Council would spend tens of thousands of pounds installing pay machines in these car parks. They could make it a pay-by-app system. But it is unlikely that they would pay for someone to patrol the car parks to try to ascertain which cars are owned by those using the park and ride buses and which are owned by those doing something else. How on earth would they be able to do that? And which particular people are they targeting? My guess is as follows.
Truro City FC play at their new stadium at Langarth and have been, and continue to be, allowed to use the Langarth park and ride site as essentially their car park on match days. Because parking at this site has always been free for park and ride users, the Council has been unable to charge for match day visitors. By amending the parking order, this will allow the Council to charge these users in future. However, it is unlikely that they will seek to collect £1 from each and every car on each match day - a logistical nightmare. I suspect, therefore, that what will happen is that the Council will reach an agreement with the football club to reimburse the Council with an agreed, or estimated, sum roughly equivalent to £1 per car each match day. With several hundred cars going to each home match, this should raise £20-30,000 per annum. This would seem to be a fair and pragmatic way to proceed.
At Tregurra, it is not so obvious who the target customer is. There are a few people (myself included) who occasionally drive to the park and ride site and take their dog for a walk; there are a few who park there and hire a Beryl electric bike; but the numbers involved would not make it worthwhile trying to target them. However, the Waitrose car park for its customers is quite restricted and I think that Waitrose and the next door Cornish Food Hall could benefit from provision of parking for their own staff and for their delivery vans. It would make sense for these two retailers to reach a deal with the Council to allow for parking of up to a certain number of their vehicles in the adjacent under-used park and ride car park. The Council could not previously enter into this arrangement because the park and ride car park was designated as a free facility. By amending the parking order, the Council can now make such a deal. Like the deal at Langarth, this seems to be a fair and pragmatic way forward.
I will wait to see if my guesses are right.