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FIVE ROADS FORUM AGM 15TH JANUARY 2005 AT 10.00AM CAR CLUB REPORT - January 2005

Early last year saw the informal launch of the West Ealing Home Zone Car Club. The car has being made available by Smart Moves, which is the company that is responsible for the overall management and administration of the Car Club scheme.
Sadly, the end of 2004 saw Menno Martens of Smart Moves, who was our direct liaison and who has 'got the West Ealing Home Zone Car Club off the ground', leave Smart Moves. We are extremely grateful to him for all of his help in bringing a Car Club Car to us and we wish him well in his new post.
The year that was 2004-2005 saw :

• A public consultation was completed to introduce a dedicated parking bay into Hastings Road. This had been previously attempted on two occasions however these attempts were thwarted by postal strikes (which meant that many residents didn't receive letters) and then the post office lost the second batch of consultation letters. Sadly the consultation was done whilst Eliz was away in New Zealand, and with only a few days warning, she wasn't able to arrange to make a door to door visit to residents to explain about the benefits of the Car Club. The outcome was that residents didn't want a Car Club space in Hastings Road.
• We have been able to circumnavigate this lack of a dedicated Car Club space throughout 2004 by parking the car with a 'Business Permit'.
• Recently, a dedicated space has been introduced to St Leonards Road and the car will be parked there.
• Eliz has had many discussions with SmartMoves and Ealing Council regarding a dedicated bay in Hastings Road. One of the issues that we have all faced is the turnover of staff at the Council. What is talked about, cajoled and agreed then needs to be revisited and renegotiated with new staff. Having said all of this, at the time of writing this report, it has been agreed that we will try again for another consultation in the spring of 2005. We hope that the whole of the Home Zone will be consulted and not just Hastings Road. It is planned that a mailout will be carried out at the same time to highlight the benefits of the Car Club; particularly that for each Car Club shows a 5-6 car reduction in the local area.
• Many new developments are happening within a short walk of the Home Zone. It is a condition of the building project that these developments have Car Clubs. This is good news for us moving forward as it will mean that we have access to more cars.
• Eliz is in ongoing discussions with SmartMoves to reduce rates. Eliz has also recently requested the introduction of an half hour charge. This is currently being put to their MD together with Eliz's request for a chepaer day rate charge.
• There have been 18 different members using the West Ealing car in the past two months.
• New Car Club bays : one in West Ealing (St Leonards Rd) and three off street in the Council car park by the Town Hall. We will have three new cars in Ealing by the end of January - one in the council car park and two on-street in Acton. This will bring our total up to six cars in Ealing. Another two cars will arrive in February and will be placed where the demand dictates. SmartMoves are having a major push in Ealing once the cars arrive to increase awareness and members. One of the aspects that SmartMoves will be working on will be Council use of cars. They do not currently have any pool cars and are imminently going to lose spaces for council staff. Unfortunately there is no central contact to co-ordinate this work so SmartMoves will be gradually working department by department with them. SmartMoves also has a housing group who wish to become corporate members of the car club. In March SmartMoves are planning a business meeting with refreshments and inviting all Ealing businesses to attend to discuss transport issues and the car club.
• Later this year there will be accessible cars at Cavalier house - timescale dictated by building works but SmartMoves would estimate that this will be ready for spring. They are talking to the housing providers at the Daniels and Waitrose sites but have no concrete details as yet. In summer they are looking at parking bays in the Northfield area and our side of the Uxbridge Road.
• Lastly, I have attached the latest research on the impact of Smart Moves City Car Clubs - it details how many people give up cars on joining a car club, how travel patterns change and how it improves air quality.

Actions arising from the last AGM :

• An action arising from last year's AGM was for me to approach SmartMoves to ask them to lower membership fees. The fees have been lowered.
• Another action from last year's AGM was for Eliz to try to get SmartMoves to reduce costs for families who hardly need to have access to a car and therefore wouldn't want to be encumbered with large fees for each member of the family joining. Eliz spent quite some time talking with Menno regarding this and is delighted to report that lower membership fees of £5 per month with a slightly higher hourly rate have been agreed. This is beneficial for those who use the car less than 7 hours per month. Details are as attached. This is particularly for those households who only want ad hoc use of a car.
• As mentioned above, Eliz has been trying to negotiate a day rate for the Car Club cars, eg from 0700 until 1700 or 1800. Many people have said that this would make joining the Car Club very attractive and for some, in reality would be a condition of their joining the scheme. Eliz has tried on many occasions last year to agree a reduced fixed fee and will continue through this year. Of note is that there is a cap on 24 hour usage which is £36. Eliz's discussions with SmartMoves regarding this are ongoing.
• At the last AGM, Hugh Comerford raised an important point being that the initial costs to join the Car Club may well put some people off joining. He also raised the point of the deposit being able to be held on a credit card arrangement that is only cashed as and when it is needed as is the case with other car hire companies. I have spoken with Smart Moves in an effort to address upfront costs and this is still under discussion.

Actions arising from this AGM (2005) :

• Apart from those ongoing points raised above, Elizabeth to enquire about getting a car seat for the Home Zone Car Club car. Since the meeting, Eliz has spoken with SmartMoves and is waiting for a response back. The response thus far seems very positive.

Elizabeth Drayton, Project Leader, West Ealing Home Zone Car Club, 15 Jan 05