Councillor Lisa Dymock was appointed as Chair of this committee.

Councillor Paul Pavia was appointed as Vice-Chair of this committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

Officer Mark Hand presented the report and answered the Members’ questions, with additional comments from Neil Rosser.

Are there national guidelines for how many mother and baby spaces need to be in car parks?

There are no national guidelines for parent and child bays, or disabled bays. The matter was raised in a Joint Wales Taskforce meeting last week, but for now there are no guidelines for us to adhere to.

Are we looking at the right numbers for how many spaces are servicing Chepstow town, given that Station Road has payment spaces, for example?

Within the car parking charges introduced at the start of this financial year, there were agreements within the budget proposals to charge on some extra car parks: Station car park and Station Road car parks in Chepstow being two of them. We installed the machines but didn’t introduce charging at that time. Part of the reason was that it involved putting up new signage, and I suggested that we shouldn’t replace the signage until the review was complete. The current signs have too many add-ons and confusing elements. Given that the review was starting, we decided not to impose the charges within those car parks at this time, so the data is technically correct at this time. We have Cabinet approval to charge in them but with their agreement, haven’t done so. If the review concludes that those spaces should be free, then the charging machines will be removed and used elsewhere.

What about ‘1 Hour Free’ spaces?

Council approved their introduction as a temporary measure until the end of September, at which point it was agreed that they would be withdrawn. In Chepstow, there has been a discussion around the Town Council possibly funding those free spaces until Christmas. There are still 15 free 30-minute spaces in Welsh Street car park. We are going to put together figures for Abergavenny and Monmouth for similar proposals, in case those town councils are interested. It’s probably not something our budget can take, at this stage.

Regarding the proposal for 10 EV charging bays in Jubilee Way, Caldicot: there are potential plans to build properties in that area, and at this moment, we would have 10 empty spaces. Do we have the right balance between this and Woodstock Way?

We will raise the matter of balance with colleagues. We will need to consider this question throughout the county. We need to get the balance between making provision and encouraging use, and being realistic about current take-up rates of EVs. We don’t want to have spaces sitting empty but, equally, a big problem for EV take-up and existing owners is the lack of charging provision.

Regarding tourists and overnight stays, how far down the route has the Tourist section of MCC taken this suggestion? Are there licensing or environmental requirements, electrical requirements, etc.?

None of those discussions has taken place yet – it is a new idea, and is added to this review as a suggested topic.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.