Agenda item

This report considers the representations received to the statutory consultation and Notice of Proposal, advertised on 15 November 2024, along with further representations received when extending the statutory consultation for the amendment of the Traffic Regulation Order, on 4 July 2025, which proposed to implement Resident Parking (ResPark) restrictions (advertised as R66: Wellington Street) to include properties on Heslington Road (part), Wellington Street, Willis Street, Gordon Street, Wolsley Street, Apollo Street, Apollo Court, Alne Terrace, Belle Vue Street, Belle Vue Terrace and Barbican Road (part) along with mixed use limited waiting parking bays on Heslington Road and determine what action is appropriate.

Resolved:   To progress the advertised R66 resident’s priority parking scheme and limited waiting restrictions on Heslington Road to implementation by amending the York Parking, Stopping and Waiting Order.

Reason:      This supports the CYC transport strategy and commitment to reduce traffic congestion by discouraging driving into the city centre.

Making this location a ResPark area removes the ability for commuters to park, whilst the limited waiting bays on Heslington Road ensure businesses are not adversely affected maintaining short stay parking for customers.

This will also increase parking accessibility for local residents, help reduce obstructive parking along a key bus route and a key cycle route (the orbital route) and improve access around the area for refuse vehicles.

The report was presented by the Traffic Projects Officer, who explained that this report had considered representations received during both the statutory consultation and the extended statutory consultation for R66. She noted that representations received to the initial consultation had previously been presented to the Executive Member in May and in response to the Executive Member’s decision then, an extension of the consultation had been undertaken to enable further engagement with residents.

She confirmed that during this extended consultation officers had hand delivered all documents to ensure engagement. This prompted 20 representations against (in addition to the 13 representations received through the initial statutory consultation) and 61 responses in favour, with an additional 45 signed letters (in addition to the 11 responses received through the initial statutory consultation). The options presented within the report took into account these representations and also the local transport strategy.

The Executive Member thanked officers and residents for their patience in extending the consultation.

She accepted that the reports had now properly taken into consideration residents’ feedback through the various stages of statutory consultation, acknowledging that this area of York contains a high proportion of rented properties which meant that it had struggled to meet the prescribed 50% response threshold to move forward.

The Executive Member stated that she had previously agreed to move ResPark forward regardless of the threshold being met, due to a clear majority of residents supporting the scheme, and indeed since making this decision the council had changed its guidelines to benefit areas with lower response rates. She clarified that while only 30% of households had responded in this case, of these 75% had been in favour of ResPark implementation.

The Executive Member stated that she had considered residents objections to ResPark and she went on to address some of these concerns in discussion with officers.

The Executive Member clarified that - contrary to the understanding of some residents who had objected - ResPark was not a revenue generator for the council, and this was not the reason for proposing this scheme. She explained that Res Park as a service essentially pays for itself and is a policy tool allowing residents parking amenity.

The Executive Member expressed that another concern raised had been with regard to holiday let parking – the Traffic Projects Officer confirmed that the owners of holiday lets were entitled to purchase one annual ResPark space, should they wish.

The Executive Member explained that students had objected to no longer having free parking, responding that the university strongly discouraged students bringing cars with them, and therefore students in general should not be significantly impacted by this.

The Executive Member was therefore satisfied that there was mitigation for most of the objections raised in the consultation, better parking amenity, better passage for buses and emergency vehicles/refuse and a more comfortable living area. She thereby

Resolved:   To progress the advertised R66 resident’s priority parking scheme and limited waiting restrictions on Heslington Road to implementation by amending the York Parking, Stopping and Waiting Order.

Reason:      This supports the CYC transport strategy and commitment to reduce traffic congestion by discouraging driving into the city centre.

Making this location a ResPark area removes the ability for commuters to park, whilst the limited waiting bays on Heslington Road ensure businesses are not adversely affected maintaining short stay parking for customers.

This will also increase parking accessibility for local residents, help reduce obstructive parking along a key bus route and a key cycle route (the orbital route) and improve access around the area for refuse vehicles.