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3.6 Senator A. Breckon of the Chief Minister regarding parking charges at the Waterfront Car Park:
Can the Chief Minister advise the Assembly how much per hour the Waterfront Enterprise Board charges for those who overstay their parking time at the Waterfront Car Park?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur (The Chief Minister):
The Waterfront Car Park is not predicated on a pay-as-you-leave basis and the charges reflect it is short-stay in nature. Rather than customers overstaying parking time, hourly charges increase if customers stay beyond 4 hours. Between the hours of
- a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Monday to Saturday, customers are charged 50p per hour or parthour for thefirst 4 hours. The fifth and sixth hoursarechargedat£2perhouror part thereof and the seventh hour and beyond, a chargeof£4perhourorpartthereof. Those hourly rates are clearly displayed and have remained unchanged since January 2005.
- Senator A. Breckon:
I wonder in the circumstances if the Chief Minister believes that a fee of over £4 an hour is fair and reasonable and if he does, should it be extended to all public car parking?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
As I said in my introduction, this is intended to be a short stay car park and the purpose of charging £4 per hour after the seventh hour is to discourage people from using it as other than a short stay car park. It may well be that the Transport and Technical Services Department, in respect of States car parks, may choose to follow a similar policy in future but that would be a matter for the Minister for Treasury and Resources.
- Senator A. Breckon:
I wonder if the Chief Minister is aware that if there is a slight delay and people are using the car park when they travel for the day to France, they pay more for car parking than they do for a day trip to France?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
I think anyone going to France would weigh-up in their own mind whether it is better to park in a short stay car park, which strikes me as being an abuse of a short stay car park, or use the public car park located at this terminal for that purpose.
- Senator B.E. Shenton:
When the funding for the car park was put in place, it was on the basis that the car park would revert back to the management of T.T.S. (Transport and Technical Services) upon completion. Will the Chief Minister give consideration to bringing the car park back into the fold of T.T.S. as was the original proposition to the Chamber?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
That issue was raised in the House some weeks ago and the fact is that at the moment, that car park and the surrounding areas run at a cost to the Waterfront Enterprise Board. If the Senator is suggesting that the States should take on that cost, I do not think it is a good idea at this stage. I think it is far better to deal with this in an orderly way as the total area around that park gets developed.
- Senator B.E. Shenton:
What does that say about the Waterfront Enterprise Board if they cannot run a car park and make money out of it?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
I was not referring simply to the car park but the surrounding areas. One cannot just take the nice bits of an operation and leave the awkward bits. One has to look at it in its totality and in its totality, it comes with costs.
- The Deputy of St. John :
Will the Chief Minister tell us how many car-parking spaces there are within the car park? What percentage is put aside for short stay? What percentage is set aside for the marina use and what percentage is set aside for States departments who are occupying most of the ground floor?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
There is an obligation on the Waterfront Enterprise Board to provide 300 spaces in the Waterfront car park for short stay use. I am not aware of any other requirement in addition to that but the obligation is to provide 300 spaces for short stay use.
- Senator B.E. Shenton:
I wonder if the Chief Minister would like to comment on what message it may send to visitors to the Island if they are unfortunate to park in this car park and come back to such a charge?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
I would point out to visitors and local people alike that there are signs clearly displayed at the entrance to the car park setting out the charges to be incurred if people use that car park. It is up to any customer to read the notice and to abide by it.