A BID by Cornwall Council to offload what could be as many as 50 of its car parks has received warnings from a number of councillors who are concerned about them being managed by “unpleasant” enforcement companies.

The decentralisation of a number of council-owned car parks is part of a plan to make £2-million of savings by getting rid of as many as 2,000 of the local authority’s assets either by devolving to town and parish councils or by selling or leasing them to companies to run.

Senior council officer Phil Mason told an economic scrutiny meeting today (Wednesday, September 4) there was no final agreed list of car parks which could be passed to new owners. However, two car parks have already been transferred. Towan Headland car park in Newquay is now owned by Cornwall Council-owned arm’s length company Treveth and managed by enforcement company Initial Parking, while New Polzeath car park is now owned by another council company, Cormac.

The council currently owns 231 car parks, 48 per cent of which are classed as town centre facilities, 25 per cent are coastal while rural car parks make up just eight per cent. Town and parish councils would also be considered for any devolution deal in running transferred car parks in the future.

Mr Mason said, for legal reasons, core car parks in strategic town centre transport areas – like Garras Wharf in Truro and Grove Place in Falmouth – are unlikely to be able to be transferred and are not being considered. Committee chairman Cllr Tim Dwelly said that an initial 12 car parks had been suggested under the plan and asked for them to be named.

Mr Mason said the council wasn’t going to reveal that information as it had to explore issues and factors that could come out of any transfer, but suggested they were likely to be in coastal and rural areas. He couldn’t say how many car parks in total the council would explore looking at transferring but it was likely to be between 40 and 50.

A list of named car parks which are likely to be transferred will be made public later this autumn, when the scrutiny committee will discuss the proposals again.

Cornwall Council receives around £300,000 a year from car park enforcement income, while paid income from parking is roughly around £18-million a year. The council currently employs 35 civil enforcement officers when at least 47 are needed.

“Private companies are allowed in law to make a lot of money from enforcement. We’re not making as much as we could because we haven’t got the enforcement staff,” said Cllr Dwelly. “Are we talking about many millions of pounds that this council could make from enforcement if we had the ability to use the same ANPR [Automatic Number Plate Recognition] technology the private sector does? The answer’s yes, isn’t it?”

Mr Mason agreed the council would make more money if it was allowed to use ANPR cameras, “to what percentage we don’t know, but it might be a million or two if we could do that.”

He said legislation is available to allow local authorities to install the technology, but the government has not yet authorised certified equipment. Cllr Dwelly said if that relatively simple change was made then Cornwall Council could make a lot more money.

Cllr Connor Donnithorne, who recently returned to the post of portfolio holder for transport, said government had been lobbied over a number of years to come up with a solution but it wasn’t high on its agenda. He said he would speak to all six of Cornwall’s new MPs to lobby for the change again.

Cllr Peter Channon was concerned about the council going down the route of offloading car parks to private enforcement businesses “because everyone knows how contentious parking is with these companies”.

“We provide a service and, let’s not kid ourselves, parking enforcement can get very, very unpleasant – everyone’s been a victim of it. I think we have to be very careful as it’s a very difficult thing to sell to the public. We have to balance it between getting a realistic return on our asset without going the other way and be seen to be getting money out of a system that can get quite unpleasant.”

He said Malcolm Bell, from Visit Cornwall, reported that the tourism company receives hundreds of complaints from holidaymakers about privately run car parks but none about council-run sites.

Cllr Channon believed town and parish councils should be given the option of taking on car parks before they are leased to the council’s own arm’s length companies.

Cllr Mike Thomas agreed with Cllr Channon’s concerns about the way the council “sells” any parking changes to Cornwall’s residents. “My experience in Helston [where Initial Parking has taken over the enforcement of two car parks] has been extremely negative. I believe many of my residents in Helston have been taken advantage of, and I can bring case studies to prove that. How can we scrutinise the operation of a company which is not part of Cornwall Council?”

Cllr Steve Arthur said that most people in Cornwall paid for parking, so enforcement wasn’t a big issue and, as a result, the transferral of car parks was a “PR disaster” for the council. Cllr Louis Gardner didn’t agree that “most people” pay as both the recent transferred car parks have seen a “substantial” rise in enforcement income; almost double.

He said: “We don’t hand over to Initial and say ‘do as you will’. They operate under a very strict premise. Where you see bad cases it’s because the landowner gives bad direction and is quite happy to hide behind a parking company. I would hope as Cornwall Council we wouldn’t do that.”

The scrutiny committee agreed that Cornwall Council leader Cllr Linda Taylor should make a devolution request to government to give the council the power to use ANPR cameras which could provide significant extra revenue for the local authority.

The committee also noted that a “surprising number” of car parks don’t have any charges at all. Given budget pressures on the cash-strapped council, it recommended that charging is considered for all council-owned car parks.