Agenda item
Motion B: ANPR Assessment of Woodford Way and Witan Way Car Park Usage; Proposed by Cllr Liam Walker, seconded by Cllr Jack Treloar
Council notes that:
1. West Oxfordshire District Council is progressing proposals that could result in the redevelopment of part of the Woodford Way car park in Witney.
2. Woodford Way and Witan Way are two of the town's principal public car parks and play an important role in supporting local businesses, visitors, commuters and the town centre economy.
3. Decisions regarding the future of public parking should be based on robust, comprehensive and up-to-date evidence rather than limited occupancy surveys undertaken over a small number of days or at specific times.
4. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology is widely used by local authorities to provide detailed information on vehicle movements, duration of stay, occupancy levels and peak demand over an extended period.
5. Collecting data over a minimum five-week period would ensure weekday, weekend, school holiday and event-related parking patterns are properly understood before any irreversible decisions are taken.
6. Residents, businesses, and town centre stakeholders rightly expect major planning decisions affecting public infrastructure to be supported by transparent and reliable evidence.
Council believes that:
1. Any proposal that could reduce public parking capacity should only proceed once there is a clear and independently verifiable understanding of existing demand.
2. A minimum five-week ANPR survey would provide a far more accurate picture of parking usage than short-term manual surveys and would improve confidence in any subsequent planning application.
3. Better evidence will lead to better decision-making and help ensure that the economic vitality of Witney town centre is not inadvertently harmed.
Council therefore resolves to:
1. Request that the Executive Member for Environment commissions the installation of temporary ANPR cameras at both the Woodford Way and Witan Way public car parks.
2. Ensure that the monitoring is undertaken continuously for a minimum period of five weeks before any planning application relating to the redevelopment of Woodford Way car park is submitted.
3. Publish the resulting occupancy, including existing data from Marriott’s Walk car park, turnover and parking duration data for the three car parks in full, together with an accompanying analysis, so that councillors, residents, and businesses can properly scrutinise the evidence.
Minutes:
Stuart McCarroll left the meeting at this point.
Cllr Liam Walker introduced the motion, which was as follows;
“Council notes that:
1. West Oxfordshire District Council is progressing proposals that could result in the redevelopment of part of the Woodford Way car park in Witney.
2. Woodford Way and Witan Way are two of the town's principal public car parks and play an important role in supporting local businesses, visitors, commuters and the town centre economy.
3. Decisions regarding the future of public parking should be based on robust, comprehensive and up-to-date evidence rather than limited occupancy surveys undertaken over a small number of days or at specific times.
4. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology is widely used by local authorities to provide detailed information on vehicle movements, duration of stay, occupancy levels and peak demand over an extended period.
5. Collecting data over a minimum five-week period would ensure weekday, weekend, school holiday and event-related parking patterns are properly understood before any irreversible decisions are taken.
6. Residents, businesses, and town centre stakeholders rightly expect major planning decisions affecting public infrastructure to be supported by transparent and reliable evidence.
Council believes that:
1. Any proposal that could reduce public parking capacity should only proceed once there is a clear and independently verifiable understanding of existing demand.
2. A minimum five-week ANPR survey would provide a far more accurate picture of parking usage than short-term manual surveys and would improve confidence in any subsequent planning application.
3. Better evidence will lead to better decision-making and help ensure that the economic vitality of Witney town centre is not inadvertently harmed.
Council therefore resolves to:
1. Request that the Executive Member for Environment commissions the installation of temporary ANPR cameras at both the Woodford Way and Witan Way public car parks.
2. Ensure that the monitoring is undertaken continuously for a minimum period of five weeks before any planning application relating to the redevelopment of Woodford Way car park is submitted.
3. Publish the resulting occupancy, including existing data from Marriott’s Walk car park, turnover and parking duration data for the three car parks in full, together with an accompanying analysis, so that councillors, residents, and businesses can properly scrutinise the evidence.”
In introducing the motion, Councillor Walker stated that a previous proposal for a trial had not been accepted by the Executive. Cllr Walker stated that parking was difficult to replace once removed and explained that the purpose of the motion was to improve evidence available to improve the decision-making in this regard.
Cllr Jack Treloar seconded the motion, welcoming the public participation statement which had been submitted by Adrian Bullock and was in support of the motion in an earlier part of the meeting. Cllr Treloar called parking in the town one of the most vital pieces of strategic infrastructure and urged members to support the motion.
Members debated the motion, raising the following points;
- The Executive member advised that a five-week survey would not provide sufficiently representative data due to seasonal variations, school holidays and temporary changes affecting parking patterns. He also noted that detailed data was already available for Marriotts Walk car park and would be reported to Members.
- Several Members supported the principle of gathering evidence but questioned whether the proposed survey would provide meaningful additional information, particularly given ongoing town centre works and existing parking data. Concerns were also raised that the motion could delay proposals to deliver affordable housing on Council-owned land at Woodford Way.
- Other Members spoke in support of the motion, arguing that residents and businesses expected decisions of this scale to be supported by robust and up-to-date parking data.
In summing up, Councillor Walker maintained that further evidence was required before progressing development proposals and argued that decisions should be based on comprehensive parking usage data.
The motion was voted on, and fell.
Voting record- for 14, against 24, abstention 1