Minutes

Councillor Fouweather asked:

The budget proposals suggest that parking spaces that are allocated to council staff will now have to paid for by staff members. This will no doubt lead to an increased level of on street parking in my ward especially around the street nearest to the Civic Centre.

Can the Cabinet Member outline to me what plans are in place to discourage staff from driving to work instead, using public transport, cycling or walking?

Can the Cabinet Member tell me if there is a green travel plan in place for staff? And what are the council doing to ensure that staff adhere to the green travel plan.

Councillor Jeavons and Councillor Davies responded:

The budget proposal restricts the free use of the public pay and display car park by Council staff to a limit of 50 parking bays. This will enable other users, who are currently parking on streets some distance from the city centre, access to the remaining bays.  

Whilst the car park will have a higher percentage of non-NCC staff, it is anticipated that the net impact on surrounding streets will be the same. Since the introduction of CPE regular patrols are carried out in the area and anyone parking illegally will receive a parking ticket.  

With regard to staff travel, the Council encourages car sharing and working in an agile way to reduce the number of vehicles being brought to the Civic Centre.  

The Council has recently introduced an arrangement with Newport Bus to provide season tickets through monthly salary deduction to assist with spreading the upfront cost of public transport.  A similar arrangement is about to be launched with Transport for Wales for train travel.

This work is being further developed by the Council’s Sustainable Travel Group and the One Newport PSB’s partnership group for Sustainable Travel.