131

Object

Representation ID: 2500

Received: 08/12/2016

Respondent: Ed Lee

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Car users visit less often in part due to the disproportionately high parking fees. Even for those living in the borough it is cheaper to travel outside the area for shopping. This undermines the High Street and creates a self justifying situation where the causes and symptoms are mixed.

Object

Representation ID: 2845

Received: 15/12/2016

Respondent: Stockvale Group

Agent: Stockvale Group

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Please see our comments on Paragraph 130, as they apply equally to this paragraph and summarise our concerns about the significant flaws in the Study.
In relation to the points made in this paragraph, we make the following comments:
Paragraph 131 states that the Study "reviews current and future car parking provision in Southend Central Area". In our view, the Study does not correctly identify all capacity in the Central Area.
It states that the Study "sets out the performance of the existing parking network". The Study has not recorded correctly the performance of the car parks that serve the seafront area on peak days when the weather is good. These are the days (which can be relatively few) when the tourism
businesses need to be able to capture every visitor. These days essentially subsidise the operation of the attractions and other supporting businesses throughout the year. If visitors are lost due to lack of car parking then these businesses are less able to remain open at quieter times of year when tourism businesses traditionally lose money. This can also mean an inability to keep on staff, which makes the business (and ultimately Southend seafront) more of a seasonal operation. This will have a damaging effect on the economy of the town and its overall prosperity, when a sizeable proportion of the town's economy is supported by its tourism role. This model applies to pretty much all mainly outdoor tourism businesses. The author of these representations (Nick Laister of RPS) is a specialist planning consultant who has worked on projects in most of the UK's main seaside towns, including Blackpool, Southport, Rhyl, Weston-super-Mare, Exmouth, Southsea, Hayling Island, Isle of Wight, Eastbourne, Hastings, Margate, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Skegness and Scarborough. These issues have emerged at a number of those resorts. It is an issue that is almost unique to the outdoor tourism industry but without an understanding of the need to accommodate the main peaks there can be significant harmful outcomes from ill-conceived policies.
Until the Study is amended to reflect these critical periods for the operators of seafront attractions it is not a suitable basis on which to build the policies that will impact upon the way the seafront operates.
This paragraph also mentions "the potential impact of development proposals on the network". We
do not consider that this has been adequately assessed, for the reasons set out in the RPS Technical Note.
This paragraph goes on to state: "It also assesses the economic importance of parking in Southend Central Area based on a recent survey of shoppers. As a result it provides a good indication of modes of travel and associated spend within Southend Central Area. It reveals that all visitors, including those who travelled by car, bus, train, cycle or walk, contribute to the local economy by spending in Southend Central Area." It is not clear why a similar survey was not undertaken of tourists visiting the town as these are equally important to the town's economy and have very different requirements (and, of course, their use focuses on different parts of the Central Area). The statement: "As a result it provides a good indication of modes of travel and associated spend within Southend Central Area" simply
cannot be justified as this only gives part of the picture. It does not give a picture of the needs of the seafront businesses, nor does it try to understand how visitors to Southend might have different requirements, patterns of movement, mode of travel, time of travel and priorities compared to
shoppers. This is a key reason why this section of the SCAAP is likely to be so damaging to the important seafront businesses..
As stated in relation to our representations on other policies and paragraphs, Stockvale carried out its own survey of visitors to Adventure Island, which more accurately reflects the requirements of visitors to the seafront area. This is summarised in the RPS Technical Note, which is submitted with these representations. It shows that there is a much greater reliance on car travel, a very high occupancy of vehicles and a high sensitivity to the availability of spaces and the difficulty in finding those spaces.
This Paragraph needs to be amended to reflect the needs of tourists visiting Southend