North Yorkshire Council
Executive
19 August 2025
Parking Principles
Report of the Corporate Director – Environment
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 The purpose of this report is for the Executive to agree that the council adopt these Parking Principles.
2.0 SUMMARY
2.1 Parking affects everyone. For many, driving is the most practical choice for getting around. Parking can also affect people’s local environment and their quality of life. And it is part of the way we offer accessible and welcoming town centres that help our economy to thrive.
2.2 It is important for the council to have coherent overall strategies for the services it provides. Equally important is that the council is committed to being local at its heart, so that decisions are locally led and reflect each area’s own needs and circumstances.
2.3 Reflecting all these factors, the principles set out in this report are the overall framework for how the council will approach parking strategy and management throughout North Yorkshire.
3.0 BACKGROUND
3.1 The Council has inherited, from the previous eight councils, a range of parking policies across the county and it is important that we have a consistent strategy going forward. To that end we are intending to develop a three-stage approach so that we can agree and adopt policies in a phased manner thus meaning that we can adopt some policies more quickly, where appropriate, and take longer on those aspects that require more time. The three broad stages are set out below.
4.0 STAGE 1 NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL PARKING STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES
4.1 For the first phase, Parking Services has produced the document at Appendix A, this sets out the Vision and Strategic Objectives of the Council and maps these to a set of principles applicable to parking. Within each principle the issues will be discussed, and principles defined relating to “the approach” the Council has to these particular issues. This document sets out the intent, and the key policy principles that will guide what the Council will do, and why, with its parking service to serve the overarching strategic objectives of the Council.
4.2 The Principles - This set of strategic parking principles has been shaped to help the council to deliver on its Council Plan 2024-2028 and related strategies such as the Local Transport Plan. It presents four themes, and principles within each of these, that will guide decisions about parking provision and management over the coming years.
4.3 Sustainable and attractive places - The Council aims to achieve a clean, environmentally sustainable, and attractive place to live, work and visit, that is well-connected and planned with good transport links. To support these aims:
· Parking facilities will aim to provide a good quality, value-for-money service to users across North Yorkshire (Principle 1)
· Given the scale and diversity of the county, the council’s approach will reflect local needs and circumstances, within an overall policy framework that is consistent across the council (Principle 2)
· Traffic congestion, air quality and the availability of other modes of travel will be a key consideration in setting the quantities of parking available, the location, the tariff and the restrictions applied (Principle 3)
· Tariffs will be varied between locations, and between on street and off-street car parks, ensuring issues such as congestion can be managed effectively (Principle 4)
· The council will support adoption of electric vehicles by providing charging facilities where appropriate, and will pass on the full costs incurred in providing the facility and any energy consumed (Principle 5)
· Existing controlled parking zones will be reviewed, and new zones introduced in more areas where appropriate, with the myriad of permits currently available streamlined (Principle 6)
4.4 Supporting to economy - The council aims to grow North Yorkshire’s economy, and to have thriving communities and town centres. To support this:
· Parking will be managed to support the vitality and attractiveness of town centres, recognising parking arrangements are key to trade (Principle 7)
· Parking incentives to encourage people to visit town centres will be reviewed to ensure a fair approach across the county, and to ensure that they are most effective in supporting town centre businesses (Principle 8)
· The parking estate will be put to its best use across all the council’s needs and goals, aiming to protect capacity where there is demand, while also recognising strategic opportunities to support the council’s wider aims (Principle 9)
4.5 Delivering good-quality service - The Council seeks to offer good quality, value for money services that are customer focused and accessible to all. To support these aims:
· In addition to reflecting local needs, the council will look to serve differing user needs; the parking offered will be deliberately varied, in terms of tariff, location and service level, to serve different customer requirements and needs (Principle 10)
· Given the major variances in off-street charges inherited by the new council, there needs to be a one-off review of charges to consider their appropriateness (Principle 11)
· Following the one-off exercise, the council will keep rules, tariffs, and investment priorities under review on an annual basis to ensure that they continue to meet users’ needs and support the council’s objectives (Principle 12)
· Consistent payment methods (card, cash, and app) will be adopted across all car parks to improve customer service, provide data and encourage revenue generation (Principle 13)
· Blue Badge parking is aimed at providing access and proximity. It will be provided and managed in line with observed need. Off-street charges will apply in all cases (Principle 14)
· Enforcement will be bolstered to keep contraventions down to an acceptable level (Principle 15)
· The council will, where appropriate and permitted, seek to work with other parking operators to improve outcomes for users (Principle 16)
· The council may offer to undertake parking management and/or enforcement on behalf of third-party car park owners, where this presents an opportunity to improve consistency or other outcomes for users, support the achievement of the council’s wider goals, or provide additional income (Principle 17)
· Parking for non-car modes (such as motorcycles, heavy goods vehicles, motorhomes, or coaches) will be managed in line with these principles and recognising their issues, needs and opportunities (Principle 18)
4.6 Financial sustainability - The costs of providing good parking need to be met, either by users or through taxes. And local government faces a challenging financial climate. To reflect this:
· Parking will be managed so as to be financially sustainable, covering the full cost of providing the parking service and capital investment in car parks (Principle 19)
· Where appropriate and permitted, tariffs may also include pricing that reflects the value or quality of the service offered, particularly when lower-price or free alternatives are also available (Principle 20)
4.7 Stage 2 Tariff Re – Balancing -It is widely accepted that the region has different demands, the two principal towns of Harrogate and Scarborough may require slightly different parking charge hours and pricing to that of the smaller and more rural market towns and villages for example. With the charges being previously overseen by 7 former boroughs and districts there is no real balance or shape to those tariffs and the adoption of the parking principles enacts the theory that the tariffs need to be re – balanced. The re – balancing proposals will be the subject of a separate report to follow the adoption of these principles.
5.0 STAGE 3 TOWN PARKING STRATEGIES (WITH ACTION PLANS)
5.1 These documents will be daughter documents consisting of a review of current parking policy and regulation in local areas, discussions of local issues and impacts, reference to the principles of approach established in the North Yorkshire Council Parking Principles in determining and setting out a set of recommendations and more specific measures for that town. A schedule of consultation will be produced with all stakeholders when the Parking Principles have been adopted.
6.0 CONSULTATION UNDERTAKEN AND RESPONSES
6.1 The Parking Principles was considered by members of the Transport, Economy, Environment and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee at their meeting of 11 July 2025. Members were broadly supportive of the approach and made some comments on the detail of the document which are considered below.
6.2 It was felt that cycle parking, active travel, park and ride and measures to reduce car travel could feature more prominently. Consequently, we have amended Principle 18 that refers to ‘other motorised and non-motorised users’ to make specific reference to cycles. Issues relating to active travel and measures to reduce car travel are considered more appropriate for the Local Transport Plan that is currently being developed in conjunction with the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority rather than the Parking Principles document. Whilst it is considered that park and ride is already suitably covered in the detailed text accompanying Principles 3 and 4 relating to ‘Managing the distribution of parking demand’. There were a number of comments relating to the pressures associated with managing the competing needs of different users in residential areas especially our tourist hot-spots and these will be addressed through the work that comes out of Principle 6 relating to ‘Residential and Visitor areas’ along with the more detailed work associated with the local action plans described earlier in section 5.1 of this report. The potential for localised revenue use from the car parks and the resulting community benefit was discussed and it was suggested that there should be more local flexibility. Any surplus funding from Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE), once the operational cost has been met, has to be spent on parking, transport or environmental improvements within the Civil Enforcement Area with the exception of surplus income from off-street car parking charges. The local retention of parking revenues does not align with this requirement as the Civil Enforcement Area is the whole of North Yorkshire.
7.0 CONTRIBUTION TO COUNCIL PRIORITIES
7.1 The Parking Principles have been directly aligned to each of the councils’ priorities as outlined in the previous paragraphs.
8.0 ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED
8.1 The alternative to retain the existing approaches and not adopt a new policy is not feasible.
9.0 IMPACT ON OTHER SERVICES/ORGANISATIONS
9.1 Parking affects everybody from businesses and residents to tourists and as such any changes made to parking arrangements does influence these groups. In order to effect changes then variations or complete changes have to be made to the Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s) and these changes are controlled by statute and each of the changes that are proposed are consulted upon and whilst they still might not all be agreed by everybody at least the effect of those changes is debated at that point. The second stage of the processes within this report refers to local action plans so there is plenty of room for consultation.
10.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
10.1 The financial implications of each element of the principles will need to be considered in detail as they are developed and will be subject to further reports. The decisions arising from these reports will contribute towards achieving the £5.613m saving identified for Parking Services across the 25/26, 26/27 and 28/29 financial years.
11.0 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
11.1 Colleagues from Legal Services have reviewed the Parking Principles document and changes have been made as required.
12.0 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
12.1 There are no equality issues arising from this report. Refer to Appendix B.
13.0 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
13.1 Any changes to the way vehicles behave will of course have an impact climate change objectives and indeed is one of the council’s priorities and the way in which the principles document will deal with this is contained in para 4.3. See Appendix C.
14.0 PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
14.1 Parking Services has been restructured specifically to run efficiently and to complement the aims and objectives of CPE. The adoption of the parking principles will further these aims and help to gain better compliance of the traffic orders and help the council financial objectives.
15.0 POLICY IMPLICATIONS
15.1 The aim of these principles is to create parking policies across the whole region most of which have not been written before and it is intended to complement the aims and objectives of the Local Transport Plan (LTP).
16.0 REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS)
16.1 The reason for adoption is to enable the planning and authoring of countywide policy where applicable and to create the necessary conditions to begin the local area action planning as already described.
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17.0 |
RECOMMENDATION
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17.1 |
That the Executive agrees to adopt the Parking Principles Document
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APPENDICES:
Appendix A – NYC Parking Principles 11 (14 Feb 2025)
Appendix B – Initial equality impact assessment screening form
Appendix C – Climate change impact assessment
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: None
Karl Battersby
Corporate Director – Environment
28 July 2025
Report Author – Steve Brown Head of Parking Services