NEWS
LOCAL AUTHORITY NEWS
OUTSOURCING BOOST FOR SOUTH AYRSHIRE
Leighton Ponting of ICES and Blair Wyllie of South Ayrshire
STOKE CCTV CAR CATCHING 100
MOTORISTS A MONTH
Following implementation of decriminalised parking in September
2012, South Ayrshire – the first Scottish authority to outsource back-office processing – is adopting ‘best practice’ in all areas of its new parking enforcement programme. After just three months, its outsource
partner – The Business Processing Unit at Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions (ICES) – was reporting recovery rates in excess of 79 per cent.
The new enforcement arrangements have also significantly increased accessibility to Ayr, Prestwick and Troon, and enabled a major crackdown on widespread fraudulent use of blue badges and parking permits. ‘It’s still very early days, but the results we’ve already achieved are extremely encouraging,’ says South Ayrshire Council’s supervisory engineer, Blair Wyllie. In developing its parking strategy, South Ayrshire Council replaced its pre-paid parking voucher system in Ayr with 56 new,
on-street pay and display machines. The next stage was decriminalised enforcement, with a council decision to proceed with its own enforcement team and to outsource all back-office processing activities.
‘In the current economic climate, it’s hard for an authority like ourselves to justify further investment in back office software and manpower, but we felt it was important that we retained direct responsibility for the enforcement patrols,’ continued Wyllie. ‘In-house enforcement and outsourced processing have proved to be a very effective combination, with the quality of the handheld technologies playing a key role, thanks to the effective training sessions delivered by ICES.’ Wyllie describes a pre-launch familiarisation visit, made with two colleagues to the ICES Business Processing Unit in Northampton, as ‘a real eye-opener and tremendously reassuring’.
Motorists causing obstructions by parking on double yellow lines, in loading bays and on pedestrian crossings are being caught by a Stoke-on-Trent City Council CCTV car and fined at a rate of more than 100 a month. Stoke’s Sentinel newspaper reported that the mobile camera has issued 1,813 parking fines of between £50 and £70 in the past 18 months. Ruth Rosenau, a city council cabinet member for transportation, told the newspaper: ‘The car is used to enforce parking restrictions. It is clearly marked and is there to deter motorists from parking or driving in areas which cause road safety issues, congestion, hazards and obstructions for other road users.’
But some business representatives claim the car is a means of boosting council income while making some areas more difficult for people to access. Meanwhile 8,074 penalties have been issued over the same period to people caught driving in Stoke’s bus lanes.
JOINT WORKING PAYS OFF FOR LONDON BOROUGHS
Court hearings and criminal records – for four motorists caught fraudulently misusing disability parking permits – followed a joint operation between Croydon Council and officers from neighbouring Lambeth. Four out of seven motorists, summonsed to appear at Croydon Magistrates’ Court in November 2012, admitted misuse of blue badges displayed in their cars, and were fined between £200 and £600, with costs of
10 FEBRUARY 2013
between £630 and £650. Their offences were committed between May and August 2012. The four – Idris Agirbas of Banstead, Sarah Aston of Thornton Heath, Jane Gardiner of Thamesmead and Dondu Varol of Edmonton – all pleaded guilty by post. One case was adjourned until January, while two other motorists failed to appear. With 10,556 blue badges issued in Croydon – and 700,000 nationally – the
ongoing joint operation is addressing the local symptoms of a widespread problem of abuse. The council’s director of public safety, Tony Brooks, applauded the work of the council officers and police in successfully prosecuting the cases: ‘We’ve spoken to many motorists – blue-badge holders and others – who have said how glad they are that we’re cracking down on the high levels of misuse, and bringing offenders to book.’
www.britishparking.co.uk
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