A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW of car parking facilities in Elgin is to be proposed to a meeting at Moray Council on Tuesday.
Councillors attending the economic development and infrastructure committee will be told that discussions with Police Scotland and the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS) have revealed a desire to engage with the local authority to “deliver improvements to town centre parking”.
A paper being put to the committee outlines that one of the projects designed to support the Elgin Charrette action plan, which identified projects to support central Elgin regeneration, was to review the council’s approach to car parking.
Three distinct options are being put to Councillors. The first is the development of a comprehensive car parking strategy, looking at how available car parking capacity could best be used to satisfy the differing needs of residents, shoppers and businesses.
Such a review would look at all town centre activities and consider parking demand in shopping areas, Moray College, council offices, Dr Gray’s Hospital, Tourist facilities and the Rail Station.
It is expected that additional specialist help would need to be obtained to deliver a fit-for-purpose strategy which would cost the local authority around £60,000.
A second option being considered would see an off-street parking improvement plan, a much reduced strategy from option one that would focus on making better use of off-street car parks through the development of an improvement plan.
Again, the local authority says that they do not have the existing staff capacity or experience to carry out such a study in detail and so help would need to be brought in at a cost of around £10,000.
The final option is to do nothing at all at the present time, although councillors are warned that taking no action would impact on the delivery of some of the proposals relating to parking that had already been agreed in the Elgin Charrette.
Report author Nicola Moss, the Transportation Manager, concludes: “The Charrette has identified that parking provision in Elgin is not perceived to be making best use of available space nor meeting the needs of businesses, residents and visitors.
“A comprehensive review of parking would enable Committee to consider options to improve parking management and ensure that any changes do not adversely impact other aspects of Elgin.
“Such a review is beyond the capacity of existing staff teams so it is proposed to employ specialist external consultants to deliver the review in conjunction with local stakeholders.”