Under the new Coronavirus Contingency Planning Procedures, as approved by the Leader of the Council, the executive (Leader and Cabinet) priorities of the Council are amended to simply be:

(i)  preservation of life;

(ii)  supporting the vulnerable;

(iii)  safeguarding children; and

(iv)  aiding the Borough’s businesses and economy during this period that contingency planning is required to respond to an emergency situation and manage the effects of a covid-19 epidemic.

In view of the Leader’s decision to agree that

(i)  the Head of Paid Service is authorised to take any action in furtherance of the priorities set out above, acting in consultation with the Leader, Cabinet member and/or Group Leaders wherever it is reasonable and practicable in the opinion of the Head of Paid Service to do so; and

(ii)  the Head of Paid Service and each Director is authorised to take any action that officer consider is reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety or welfare of individuals.

The following decisions have been made:

DECISION(S)

(1)  parking charges across the whole of the Borough be suspended; and

(2)  the suspension of parking charges takes effect as soon as is practicable and continues until 1^st July 2020 or until such time as the Director of Delivery Services considers that the suspension is no longer required to meet community needs in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 virus urgent action. The Government has issued guidance that Key Workers should not be charged for parking and this decision supports this approach.

Suspending parking charges across all areas would also go some way to assisting our residents in parking for free when accessing shops for food and essentials and may also help those businesses that are able to remain open to survive.

Other options considered:

a)  Continue to monitor the current parking use and only suspend charges if demand falls below an agreed level.

b)  Suspend parking charges on the car parks only (maintain charges on-street, only applies to Birkenhead).

c)  Suspend parking charges on-street only (maintain the car park charges).

These options would not fully meet the identified community needs in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.