POLICY COMMISSION MEETING

Meeting	Policy Commission for Economy, Tourism, Regeneration and Transport
Ref	E.PC.19/10/05
Date	19 October 2005
Time	18.00hrs
Place	Committee Room 1, County Hall, Newport
Purpose of meeting	Formal public meeting
Attendance	Commission	Cllrs George Brown (Commissioner), Henry Adams, Ivan Bulwer, Jonathan Fitzgerald-Bond, Charles Hancock, John Hobart, Lora Peacey-Wilcox
	Cabinet	Cllr Andy Sutton – Leader of the Council Cllr Ian Ward – Cabinet Member, Environment, Transport and Planning
	Cabinet Secretariat	Cllr David Pugh Cllr Alan Wells
	Other Councillors	Cllr Roger Mazillius Cllr Arthur Taylor Cllr David Whittaker Cllr Julian Whittaker Cllr David Williams - Commissioner, Policy Commission for Safer Communities
	Officers	Ms Louise Biggs - Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Team Ms Astrid Davies - O&S Team Ms April West - O&S Team
	Stake holders	Mr Derek Rowell - Strategic Director of Environment Services Mr Chris Wells - Senior Transport Planner Mr Malcolm Smith - Policy and Strategy Manager (PFI Project Manager) Mr Kevin Smith - Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce Mr Graham Pearce - Isle of Wight Federation of Small Businesses
	Apologies	None
Agenda Items
1. To receive evidence from Mr Malcolm Smith	· The Highways Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is the first of 3 PFIs: an integrated transport PFI and the port and ferry travel PFI. · The number of road causalities and insurance claims has increased over time. · Road conditions are poor on the Isle of Wight, thus requiring a large investment in the Islands roads. · A PFI will address the backlog of highway repairs as well as ensuring that the roads are kept in a good condition by allowing repairs to be made to a road at the optimum stage of their life cycle. · Other methods of funding road repairs and upkeep have been investigated, such as prudential borrowing and road partnering arrangements, but PFI is considered as the only means of acquiring new money into the system. · The condition of the Island’s roads is currently in the bottom 25% nationally, with 12.7% of roads requiring attention. There are also currently weight and width restrictions on many Isle of Wight roads, with the next step being closure. · The Highways PFI would also include the highways infrastructure, e.g. street lighting and grass/hedge cutting. · The IWC currently receives 40% - 50% of the funding required to maintain the roads to a sufficient level. There has also been a decline in the highways maintenance budget. · The capital funding from Government has stayed at the same level over time whilst revenue funding has decreased. · Engineering services have been tasked with finding a revenue budget savings of around £500,000 as part of overall IWC budget savings. However the Cabinet Member indicated that there may be an increase in the Council’s highways maintenance budget. · There has been an indication from the Government Office of the South East that the capital funding acquired through the Local Transport Plan (LTP) may not favour rural areas such as the Isle of Wight, but instead may favour more urban areas. · The backlog of repairs equates to £160 million. · The value of the PFI contract is £800 million over 25 years, with pay according to performance. · The Expression of Interest is due for submission to the Department of Transport (DfT) in December 2005 and the earliest date for the PFI contract to commence will be February 2008. · Although the previous administration was aware of the backlog of repairs required for Island roads, there was no way of securing sufficient funding prior to the availability of PFIs for highways maintenance. · If the overall funding for PFIs, made available by government, is reduced, then this could result in fewer Local Authorities being awarded funding. However, this would not reduce the funds made available to each Local Authority. · The Isle of Wight has a good case for securing PFI funding due to the links which have been made with regeneration and the fact that a rural applicant has not yet been awarded funding in this way. · It is likely that the bid for a PFI contract would come from large multinationals, which would sub-contract to local businesses and employ local residents. A link to modern apprentices and other training can be linked into the terms of the contract. · With regard to the highways maintenance budget, the Council currently spends over its Formula Spending Share (FSS). · The Cabinet Member will be discussing any alternatives to a PFI with a government transport minister.
2. To receive a evidence from Kevin Smith	· The chamber of Commerce has approximately 1000 members. · A survey was undertaken approximately 18 months ago asking Chamber members from Newport (around 200 members) whether they would purchase a £100 all-island parking permit. The result was an equal yes/no split. · The permit should only be available for long stay car parks, primarily for employees parking all day for work purposes and these car parks should be located outside town centres. Visitors and island residents should be encourage to use the short stay car parks near town centres. Out of town parking should be linked in with pedestrian and bus links. · If a permit allowed a car to be parked in a short stay car park then this would result in these being full of part-time workers rather than visitors and customers. · Chamber members are currently using free car parks or parking on the road for free. · The permit should be £100 rather than £50 to promote work place green travel plans. The parking permit may also work against the £1 bus ticket policy by reducing the cost of motoring. · The Cabinet Member indicated that the £1 bus fare and the parking permit were complimentary policies, with both assisting Island residents with travel. · There is a strong link between the viability of town centres and the way in which car parks are used.
3. To receive evidence from Mr Graham Pearce	· The council should be making it more difficult for people to travel into towns by car, and instead encourage bus usage. · The federation comprises approximately 800 members, although the proposed £50 parking permit has not been discussed within the group as of yet.
4. To receive evidence from Mr Chris Wells	· Population, car ownership and car use are both rising, with the majority of cars entering Newport being short (under 2 miles) and single occupancy journeys. Congestion is also increasing. · LTP2 is the means of securing capital funding from government, with funding linked to the achievement of targets. · To reduce congestion, an alternative to building roads must be found and several demand and supply management tools can be used for this purpose, although these could be used as ‘blunt instruments’. · The provision of car parking with new developments has been removed in line with local planning guidance. · The draft LTP, which has been submitted to government, did not refer to parking, in light of the current work on parking. However, the final LTP2 submission will reflect any changes in council policy in relation to parking. · LTP2 will generate between £30 and £50 million in funding over its lifetime of five years. · Park and Ride schemes have been most successful in areas where parking is very expensive or where there is a lack of capacity.
5. To receive evidence from Other issues	· The links between the decriminalisation of parking (on-street) on the island and the parking permit were highlighted by the commissioner for Safer Communities. · The Cabinet Member and Leader highlighted the need for flexible working and other means of reducing the need for people to travel in order to reduce congestion, other than penalising motorists.
Action required	1. Members to receive figures on insurance claims 2. Arrange benchmarking visits to other Local Authorities in relation to the parking permit enquiry.	Mr Malcolm Smith Overview and Scrutiny Team