Beer car park charges to double to £2 an hour

The central car park in the village of Beer will be among those in East Devon to see charges doubled.

East Devon District Council's Cabinet agreed to increase car parking charges to £2 an hour for nine 'prime' tourist hot spot car parks across the district to increase revenue needed for council services. 

The Cabinet is also sticking by its decision for a 50 per cent price hike in 10 other prime location car parks, taking their fees to £1.50 an hour.

The increases are the first of their kind in the district for almost 12 years.

Councillors say inflation and the introduction of VAT on car parking charges have eaten into income generated from parking. 

Cabinet members believe the £1.1 million generated from the increase is necessary to balance the council's budget and provide urgently needed funding elsewhere.

To reduce the impact on local residents, councillors agreed to create £10 per month parking permits for residents who pay council tax. Annual permits for such residents will go up to £120 per year from April.

Prices will be capped at £8 for a day's parking for non-residents or those without a permit.

Speaking at Cabinet, Cllr Paul Millar (Labour, Democratic Alliance Group, Exmouth Halsdon) said he was originally against the rise but decided it was justified and would take parking prices in prime locations to levels seen in many other parts of Devon.

Cllr Millar said: "We're faced with a very difficult decision but one I think we have to take. It's a decision about whether this council wants to be an austerity council or whether it wants to be a council that invests in its services for its residents.

"If Exeter, Teignbridge and Mid Devon are doing that by increasing their charges then why aren't we?"

The move allows Cabinet to restructure the council's revenue budget, putting an extra £737,000 into staffing.  

This includes money for Streetscene, which cleans and maintains public spaces in East Devon including parks, public gardens and council-owned toilets.

The service, which hasn't had an investment in staffing in 10 years, is struggling to keep up with demand for seafront cleaning, rising by almost 30 per cent last year alone.

Additional funds will also go into hiring more staff for development management, which is struggling to stay on top of record numbers of planning requests.

Under the plans, two new members of staff will be hired at Manor Pavilion, Sidmouth.

The revenue boost also allows the council to put £50,000 into its tree strategy, without eating into its climate change budget. A further £159,000 will go into funding the council's recycling and refuse services.

The council's chief executive, Mark Williams, said: "There's no logic why we should be so behind the curve in terms of the way we approach our charging policy for car parks compared to our neighbours."

He said that with the increase "the council will be on a much better footing to achieve what it wants to achieve".

Cllr Sarah Jackson (Independent East Devon Alliance, Democratic Alliance Group, Axminster) said: "It's never going to be popular putting up any parking fees but we have to recognise that the increases in tourism to our areas is putting our services under a lot more pressure just to maintain the existing services that we have because there's a lot higher footfall."

Cllr Steve Gazzard (Liberal Democrats, Democratic Alliance Group, Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh) spoke out against the increase. He said the rising cost of living might put some people going on holiday to places in East Devon in the first place, adding: "I think to put it up from £1.50 to £2 is too steep for this moment in time."

Cllr Geoff Jung (Independent East Devon Alliance, Democratic Alliance Group, Woodbury and Lympstone) disagreed, saying: "I don't see why just because everyone else has put their prices up, from the gas suppliers to the candle-stick maker, we can't put our prices up."

Cllr Maddie Chapman (Conservative, Exmouth Brixington) wanted to see prices raised equally across all car parks instead of the steep rise in the most expensive ones.

She said the policy "seems grossly unfair" and did not want parts of the district "to feel penalised because they've got a beach."

Cllr Jack Rowland (Seaton, Independent East Devon Alliance, Democratic Alliance Group), portfolio holder for finance, said different pricing in different parts of the district was needed and that it would be "totally unfair" to raise tariffs equally across the district, given massive differences in supply and demand.

Cllr Paul Hayward added: "We're here to do the right thing – not to be populists."

He also noted that the move could encourage people to use their cars less.

The matter will now go to full council for final decision. If the budget is approved, the increases would come into effect at the start of the next financial year, beginning in April. The nine tourist hot-spot car parks to see a rise to £2 per hour rise are:

Beer Central, Exmouth Queen's Drive, Queens Drive Echelon, Exmouth Foxholes, Exmouth Beach Gardens, Budleigh Lime Kiln and Sidmouth Ham (East and West).

The other 'prime location' car parks set to see a rise to £1.50 per hour are:

Sidmouth Roxburgh, Ham (East and West), Manor Road, Mill Street and Manor Pavilion Exmouth Imperial Road, Imperial Recreation Ground, London Inn, Honiton Lace Walk, King Street and New Street (North and South), Fore Street Budleigh Salterton Rolle Mews.