Agenda item

Following the Government’s changes to the vehicle tax (VED) bandings, this report asks that a review and changes are brought in to update the council’s parking discount criteria in line with these Government changes. 

Resolved:

(i)      That the implementation of Option 3 be approved as follows:-

Update permit rates to align with vehicle tax (VED) bandings and change the discount threshold to 75g/km or less with implementation from April 2019 with acquired rights for existing vehicles/permits to end no later than April 2023.

(ii)      That the advertisement of the changes to the terms of the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) with any objections reported back to a future Decision Session if required, be approved and that, if no objections are received, the implementation of the changes be authorised.

Reason: To come into line with the Government changes to VED and update the council’s outdated policy that in turn would seek to encourage Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV) car ownership and support the One Planet York initiative.

The Executive Member considered a report which highlighted the Governments changes to the vehicle tax (VED) bandings, and asked that a review and changes be brought in to update the councils parking discount criteria in line with these Government changes.  

Officers drew Members attention to two errors in the report and advised that paragraph 7, recommendation (a) and references in paragraphs 12-13 should refer to implementation by April 2019 (not April 2018) and that paragraph 18 should refer to option 2 (and not option 3).

The Executive Member considered the four options detailed in the report.

1.        Option 1 - Update permit rates to align with VED bandings and change discount threshold to 75g/km or less – implement from April 2019.

2.        Option 2 - Update permit rates to align with VED bandings and change discount threshold to 75g/km or less – implement from April 2019 with acquired rights for existing vehicles/permits.

3.        Option 3 (Recommended) - Update permit rates to align with VED bandings and change discount threshold to 75g/km or less – implement from April 2019 with acquired rights for existing vehicles/permits to not later than April 2023.

4.        Option 4 - Not implement any change but remove reference to A-L bandings in permit charges as they are no longer in use for vehicles registered after April 2017.

He acknowledged the comments made by Cllr D’Agorne and Alasdair McIntosh under public participation in relation to this item.

Officers advised that this report was to give effect to a budget decision taken at Full Council in February 2017 to raise the qualification threshold for the 50% discount from low emission vehicles (LEV), which emit less than 120g/km, to ULEV, emitting less than 75g/km. 

Officers confirmed that they would write to all residents who were holders of discounted parking permits to advise them of the proposed changes and highlighting the TRO consultation process which gave them the opportunity to make comments on the changes.

With regard to the speaker’s comments regarding charging points for those living on streets with no off street parking, officers advised that on street charging points were one of the largest challenges and that they were working with central government, the Department for Transport and the powergrid regarding how to overcome barriers to this, However they confirmed that it was not possible to consider facilitating requests for individual domestic provision crossing the highway from householders at the moment. 

Resolved:

(i)      That the implementation of  Option 3 be approved as follows:-

Update permit rates to align with vehicle tax (VED) bandings and change the discount threshold to 75g/km or less with implementation from April 2019 with acquired rights for existing vehicles/permits to end no later than April 2023.

(ii)      That the advertisement of the changes to the terms of the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) with any objections reported back to a future Decision Session if required, be approved and that, if no objections are received, the implementation of the changes be authorised.

Reason: To come into line with the Government changes to VED and update the council’s outdated policy that in turn would seek to encourage Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV) car ownership and support the One Planet York initiative.