Agenda item

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Prior to considering the following item Councillors Adam and Milne declared an interest in the subject matter of the following article by virtue of being the Council’s appointed representatives on the Aberdeen Performing Arts Board. None of the Councillors felt it necessary to withdraw from the meeting.

Also during consideration of the following item the following members declared an interest in the matter by reason of their involvement with the North East of Scotland Transport Partnership (Nestrans):- the Convener and Councillor Boulton as Board members of Nestrans, Councillor Kevin Stewart as Chair of Nestrans and a resident of the Middlefireld area; and the Vice-Convener as a substitute Board member of Nestrans. None of the members involved considered it necessary to leave the meeting during the Committee’s deliberation on the report before it.

(1)    THE ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL (OFF-STREET CAR PARKS) ORDER 2010

(2)    THE ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL (ASHLEY/QUEENS CROSS) (ZONE N) (TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND PAY AND DISPLAY) ORDER 2010

(3)    THE ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL (CITY CENTRE – AREA IV) (TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND PAY AND DISPLAY) ORDER 2010

(4)    THE ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL (KING STREET AREA – BEACH BOULEVARD TO ROSLIN PLACE, ABERDEEN) (TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND PAY AND DISPLAY) ORDER 2010

(5)    THE ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL (ON-STREET PARKING PLACES) ORDER 2010

(6)    THE ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL (AREA 2) (QUEENS CROSS / ROSEMOUNT/ MIDSTOCKET/ASHLEY AREA, ABERDEEN) (TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT) ORDER 2010

(7)    THE ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL (1)  ROSEMOUNT/QUEENS CROSS AREA – GENERAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT;  (2) ROSEMOUNT PLACE/ SKENE SQUARE/GILCOMSTON STEPS/WOOLMANHILL/SKENE STREET/ ESSLEMONT AVENUE AREA – “PAY AND DISPLAY”) ORDER 2010

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Corporate Governance dealing with objections received after the statutory advertisement of the above-named traffic orders.   The orders provided for new operational arrangements in the City Council’s on and off-street car parking regimes.  

The main thrust of the objections was to do with the social impact of on-street controls being applied until 8.00pm in the evening (instead of the current cut-off point at 6.00pm).  There were also concerns about the new proposed off-street arrangements, where charging would apply not only until 8.00pm but also (by way of a new overnight flat rate of £1.50) from 8.00pm until 8.00am the next morning (but not on Sunday evenings overnight to Mondays).   Furthermore, only if this overnight charge had been paid would the duration of a prior period paid for run through into the following day’s charging hours.  

The new orders would also allow housekeeping matters to be tidied up, reducing the extent to which the current regimes depended on amendments of amendments, etc.

Some objections were about the impact which extended evening operational hours would have on a range of leisure activities in the central part of the city.  Quite a number of them were from Bridge players, many of whom were members of The Bridge Club in Rubislaw Terrace.  Other players attended a different club in Bon Accord Terrace.  However, there were also many objections from people with different evening leisure involvements which they also believed would be seriously affected by on and off-street parking charges applicable in the evenings (and overnight in off-street car parks).

Predictably, a number of objectors had criticised the proposals as mere revenue-generating plans intended to make money where no public interest or accountable strategy could possibly be served.  The report observed that that did not appear to be a reasonable criticism given that for several years the Council had been criticised strongly by people who believed that they were obliged to pay for residential permits to park near their homes but got no benefit from those permits at the times when they experienced the most severe difficulties in parking (i.e. some residential streets filled up with non-residential parking in the evenings).

A vivid example of this would be Dee Street, where there had been trenchant criticism that existing on-street controls did nothing to deter what was perceived to be intrusive parking by people heading for the Music Hall.

Nevertheless, one of the objections was from Mr. Duncan Hendry, Chief Executive of Aberdeen Performing Arts, who referred in particular to the Music Hall, His Majesty’s Theatre and the Lemon Tree.  Mr. Hendry made the point that the proposed changes could add £3.50 to the cost of (say) an evening concert at the Music Hall.

However, the Council had set out to respond to the criticism from residents in the likes of Dee Street, and to accept the possibility that some people, depending on the choices they made, might indeed find themselves paying evening parking charges in order to leave their cars relatively close to the Music Hall, perhaps rather than using an off-street car park with its attendant concerns about vulnerability late at night, etc.

It could also be speculated that a relatively small parking charge was neither here nor there if one was already committed to attending a concert for which the tickets might cost £30 each, but that the situation was very different when the leisure activity was playing bridge or amateur music-making, and might take place several times a week.  Here, the burden of parking charges took on a different connotation vis-à-vis an activity that was otherwise largely or essentially free of charge.  One objection (from Queen’s Cross Church) referred to Boys Brigade and Girl Guides activities.  The point appeared to be not that parents could not drop off and pick up their children without paying parking charges – by and large, that would not be true - but that adult volunteers leading evening activities would have to pay parking charges to park while they were doing whatever it was they did.

However an air of scepticism might be appropriate if the case was pressed too strongly that someone motivated to pursue a civic involvement would simply recoil from that involvement if evening parking charges – which were by no means a particularly unusual symptom of city centre traffic management elsewhere – were introduced in Aberdeen for the first time.   Here the report emphasised again the clear desire of many residents that there be evening controls to bring their residential permits into line with their expectation of them.

Local authorities necessarily implemented public policies in systematic ways.  The caricature of “one size fits all” was easy to sketch but the Council’s critics might revert to it if charged with the burden of managing public policy.   However, having said that, there was undoubtedly something to be said for the case being made by The Bridge Club in Rubislaw Terrace.

There were very few residents in Rubislaw Terrace and the best argument for the current policy did not really apply to that road unless one entered the domain of considering whether displacement from roads nearby would become an issue when extended evening operational hours kicked in there.

Although officers frequently reminded the Committee that the Council had previously regretted excising bits of controlled zones because of scepticism about displacement arguments, this concern did not appear to be distinctive in the present case.

The objectors from Rubislaw Terrace would aver that there was no imminent likelihood of displacement parking, and it was conceded that there was no existing evening pressure.   In particular, the Bridge Club in Rubislaw Terrace believed that their street could be lifted out of the current legislation partly because, unlike other locations, the Council did not have to choose between competing interests there.

The roads officials were of the view that, if there were to be any relaxation in this case, it would be altogether best to take out not only Rubislaw Terrace but also Queens Terrace (obviously), Albyn Place (the main road in this sector but one with very few residential frontages), Albert Terrace, Albert Street, Rubislaw Place and a little bit of Carden Place.  In the Council’s in-house terms of reference, this amounted to taking the “Zone P” element out of the relevant traffic order.   From the point of view of public understanding, it would be easier to do this than to take one or two streets out but leave the others in.

Yet there was a significant counter-argument.  Local authorities did not ordinarily do this kind of thing.  Even if a small number of streets could be identified where there was no competing interest, and in respect of which the best arguments for evening charges did not apply, it had to be remembered that taking those streets out of the legislation would be done publicly, as part of a public process, and would be reported in the local press.  The Council would be making it very clear that extended operational hours were being introduced but that some streets were being left out, and people would become very aware that one could head for those streets to avoid evening charges.

The possibility of attracting a new problem was therefore a serious concern.   However, it might occur in a slower manner than usual, allowing difficulties to be dealt with timeously in a future review.   Also, taking out the whole Zone P sector would share any impact between a number of streets, not force it onto just one.   Accordingly, the report acknowledged that there was intellectual respectability in the idea of dropping extended evening operational hours in Zone P, and also that such a move would help other objectors (e.g. Queens Cross Church).   This raised the question of whether the same arguments might apply in other areas.   Some objectors would probably say that they did, but the report expressed doubt about this.   One objector suggested that there would be no harm in retaining free evening parking in Upper Denburn, but, if evening/overnight charges were introduced in the Denburn off-street car park, a displacement effect at this location was inevitable.

Wherever else one looked, there were competing interests (residents who felt they get no benefit from their residential permits at the times when they experienced the most severe difficulties in parking) or else genuine fears about displacement.  All in all, the Zone P sector looked like the one location where there was a provisional argument for relaxation.   But it would be a calculated risk.

Moving onto an entirely separate topic, there had been objections from Golden Square, where the old arrangements operated by the British Legion were to be replaced by the incorporation within the Council’s new off-street car parking order of the “inner circle” at the location.   There was nothing particularly compelling about these objections.   At least one of them referred extensively to supposed legal questions, and suggested that the Council was acting outwith its powers in incorporating the area in a traffic order, but these issues had in fact been resolved long ago, and there was nothing in the objections to cause the Council to hesitate to implement the off-street legislation with Golden Square included in it.   Further commentary on the objections had been circulated as the appendix to the report.   This narrative was in the authorship of the roads officials in Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure, and added a wide range of observations on points of detail.

As agreed at the beginning of the meeting (see article 1 above), the Committee then went on to hear five deputations from objectors seeking to amplify their concerns about the new arrangements.   The first of these was on behalf of the Aberdeen branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, for whom Ms. Jean Martin expressed the view that the society shared with the Council the broad strategic aims of “fun, fitness and friendship”, and regretted that the Council, having first of all impeded the society’s activities by withdrawing evening lets at Council schools, was now compounding the problem by introducing evening parking charges that would deter existing members and make it more difficult to attract new ones.   At the moment, the society used the Boys Brigade halls in Crimond Place, and new parking charges in and around that location would become by far and away the most expensive aspect of its activities.   Also, having acknowledged the on-street strategic objective of releasing kerbside space in the evenings for the benefit of residents who were complaining that they got little good from their increasingly expensive residential permits, Ms. Martin asked what comparable strategic objective could be at stake vis-à-vis the new arrangements in off-street locations.  

The Committee then heard from Gilbert Reid, Chris Blunt and John Craig of the Bridge Club in Rubislaw Terrace, which had been in existence at that location since 1933 and had 284 members, roughly half of whom were old age pensioners.   On the other hand, though, there was a unique and thriving school section involving 80 schoolchildren, and a significant number of members who came to play from outwith the city.

Car sharing already happened, and was probably already at an optimum.   Notwithstanding the younger element, the club had many elderly members who did not feel comfortable about using public transport late at night.   An evening session began at  6.30 for 7.00 and might well  finish  close to 11.00.    Members might play as often as four times a week, and, on each occasion, they would have to pay £3.90 to park on an empty street.  

Mr. Duncan Hendry, the Chief Executive of Aberdeen Performing Arts, then explained to the Committee that, in respect of the major venues he represented (the Music Hall, HM Theatre and the Lemon Tree) 40% of the audiences came from outside the city.   Car use was an essential means of reaching those venues not only for those travelling greater distances but also for people within the city concerned about a sense of vulnerability late at night on Union Street, or in off-street car parks.   In relation to the observations in the report that parking charges might seem negligible if someone was already committed to attending a concert at a cost of £30, Mr. Hendry offered the counter-example that a season’s subscription to one of the Scottish orchestras - the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra - could work out at little more than £7 a concert for an OAP, and implied that the commitment of this audience was not such that it would transcend the deterrent effect of parking charges adding around 50% to the cost of subscriptions at concessionary prices.  

The Reverend Scott Rennie of Queens Cross Church then endorsed the suggestion in the report that consideration be given to the possibility of dropping the Zone P sector from the relevant order, explaining the very high level of evening activity at Queens Cross (every night of the week, with four or even six events each evening).  

Finally, Margaret Alexander and George Gordon, representing the Northern Arts Bridge Club in Bon Accord Square, echoed much of what had been said by the Bridge Club in Rubislaw Terrace.   The Northern Arts Bridge Club had existed since 1903.   The organisation had started (as its name suggested) as an arts society, but, in time, Bridge had taken over.   The membership was largely composed of elderly people, and so there were concerns similar to those expressed by Messrs. Reid, Blunt and Craig about using public transport relatively late in the evening.   Again, many members played four times a week.   Again, this was from around 6.30pm until 10.30pm or 11.00pm.

Having heard the deputations, Councillor Jennifer Stewart spoke (as a local member) about her concern over the proposals for Rubislaw Terrace and Queens Terrace, and asked the Committee to consider closely the possibility that these two streets be excised from the new legislation, and the position kept under review.

A full debate then ensued, in the course of which the point was made that, were Zone P to be excised from this traffic order, residents in Albert Terrace would be extremely critical of the relaxation, being sceptical about the suggestion in the report that a displacement effect in that zone might not have the immediate impact familiar from other parts of the city. 

The Convener, seconded by the Vice-Convener, then moved that the objections be overruled and the orders made and implemented as originally envisaged - including the retention of the Zone P sector - but that, in response to a point raised by the Northerns Arts Bridge Club, the one hour maximum periods of stay in the most inward central areas be altered to periods of two hours, but only after 6pm. 

As an amendment, Councillor Boulton, seconded by Councillor Adam, moved that the orders be made and implemented with the Zone P sector excised and the new off-street overnight flat rate reduced to £1 (instead of £1.50), and also that the Committee receive a report back on how the extended evening hours might (in the future) be relaxed or relinquished in streets able to be characterised as less residential in their nature. 

On a division there voted:-  for the motion (10) – the Convener;  the Vice-Convener;  and Councillors Clark, Noble, Cormie, Greig, Jaffrey, Penny, Robertson and Kevin Stewart;  for the amendment (5) – Councillors Adam, Allan, Boulton, Crockett and Milne.

The Committee resolved:-

to adopt the motion, and also to affirm Councillor Kevin Stewart’s view that, in conjunction with NESTRANS, the Council needed to begin moving towards a modernised parking strategy to take account of the shifting strategic landscape which the preceding discussions had brought into view.