Council staff will have to pay for parking (From Craven Herald)

Council staff will have to pay for parking

3:30pm Friday 3rd July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Craven District Council staff will be expected to share cars and walk to work when the council relocates to Skipton’s Belle Vue Mills.

Others, who want to use the limited parking spaces available, will have to pay for the privilege.

The council, which currently has 72 free parking spaces for staff at its Granville Street site, hopes to move to Broughton Road next spring, although it has yet to get planning permission for the change of use from residential to offices.

The new offices, which it will share with North Yorkshire County Council, will have just 32 shared spaces and seven spaces for disabled visitors.

Council employees, who also currently have access to 46 spaces behind the town hall, will be provided with 43 reserved places at the Cavendish Street par park, for which they will have to pay at a rate to be decided.

At Monday’s policy committee meeting, councillors were told that employees could also make use of parking around the Belle Vue site.

Jonathan Kerr, the council’s strategic director for community services, said it was hoped staff would share cars, walk to work and find other ways to travel.

A green travel plan survey, carried out by the council, had revealed that 52 per cent of staff said they would be happy to car share and 23 per cent agreed they could reduce car use.

The council has also just agreed flexible working procedures, including working from home, which could also reduce pressure on parking.

At the meeting, councillors questioned the likelihood of staff being willing to adopt alternative travel plans – particularly in the winter. They also advised against the use of private car parks, such as the ones owned by Focus and Morrisons.

After the meeting, council leader Coun Chris Knowles-Fitton (Cons) said; “I fully believe that staff should pay for parking and providing free parking is a luxury that we cannot afford. Many employers aren’t even able to go to the lengths we are to provide any sort of parking facility for their staff.”

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)