POLICY COMMISSION MEETING

Meeting	Policy Commission for Economy, Regeneration, Tourism and Transport
Ref	E.PC.13/7/05
Date	13 July 2005
Time	18.00hrs
Place	Committee Room 1, County Hall, Newport
Purpose of meeting	Formal public meeting
Attendance	Commission	Cllr G Brown, Cllr Fitzgerald-Bond, Cllr J Hobart, Cllr I Bulwer and Cllr H Adams
	Cabinet
	Secretariat	Cllr D Pugh
	Officers	Gareth Hughes, Financial Services Manager Peter Taylor, Traffic and Transportation Manager Louise Biggs, Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Team Astrid Davies, O&S Team April West, O&S Team
	Stake holders	None
	Apologies	Cllr L Peacey-Wilcox and Cllr C Hancock
Agenda Items
1. Scoping Documents for the Commission’s initial enquiries	The following documents were considered: Paper A - 50 residents parking permit (Ref E2/05) – Cllr Fitzgerald-Bond Paper B - Highways private finance initiative (Ref E3/05) – Cllr I Bulwer Paper C – Leisure Value for Money/Strategic Partner (Ref E4/05) – Cllr J Hobart Paper D – Tourism Value for Money/Strategic Partner (Ref E5/05) – Cllr G Brown Paper E – £1 Bus Ticket on Southern Vectis Omnibus Company (Ref E6/05) – Cllr H Adams Paper F – Wight Bus Value for Money (Ref E7/05) – Cllr L Peacey-Wilcox Outcomes: 1. Paper B was agreed subject to the following amendments Under the section entitled, “Proposed outcome of policy implementation”, the following wording was agreed: “By arresting the decay in the highway asset and the removal of the backlog of repairs by 2011” Under the section entitles, “related projects”, the following additions were agreed: “PFI Transport and PFI Port and Ferries” 2. All other scoping documents were agreed without amendments
2. To receive initial comments from Peter Taylor.	Informal evidence: a. It would be advisable for permits not to be transferable between vehicles. b. It was important to note that permits do not guarantee a parking space for Islanders, which could be the perception. c. It will be difficult to manage the restrictions on the permits. d. Lost permits could be charged at £10 per permit plus a charge for a change of vehicle e. The permit would be valid 7 days a week f. Eligibility for those owning holiday homes on the island would have to be considered. g. There is a need to define the age at which people become eligible for the Old Age Pensioner’s discount. The price of the OAP has been suggested as £35 h. It would need to be established whether the permit would run from a set date year to year or from the month of purchase until 12 months later. Formal evidence to be gathered at the meeting on 14^th September
3. To receive initial comments from Gareth Hughes	Informal evidence: Mr Hughes made the following comments: h. A reduction in cash collection cost would be helpful since the cost is predicted to treble. i. There is a need to fully assess the take-up of the permits before proceeding and further consultation is required for this. j. It could be possible to use swipe card technology rather than cash to pay for parking as cash currently costs us money to process. Formal evidence to be gathered at the meeting on 14^th September
Action required	· Briefing to be arranged between Cllr Fitzgerald – Bond and Mr Hughes · Proposed dates of completion for the scoping documents is required at the next formal meeting of the Policy commission · Further consultation is required for E2/05 to assess demand for the £50 permit · Publish the scoping documents on the Overview and Scrutiny web pages · Draw up detailed project plans for each enquiry	Gareth Hughes / Cllr Fitzgerald-Bond Lead Member / commissioner Overview & Scrutiny team Louise Biggs Astrid Davies / Louise Biggs