Pendle Parking Services Annual Report 2008-09

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PARKING SERVICES ANNUAL REPORT 2008/09

Purpose of the report

1. To note the annual report on the financial performance of the Councils parking service.

Enforcement authorities are required to produce an annual report on their enforcementactivities within six months of the end of the financial year. The report is required to be

published.

2. In addition, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal have to be informed of the number of PCNs

issued.

Background

3. Pendle Borough Council has operated Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE)

since 6 September 2004. Under the terms of the Traffic Management Act 2004, which

came into force on 31 March 2008, the enforcement of parking became Civil ParkingEnforcement (CPE).

4. The legislation under which the service currently operates is the Road Traffic Act 1984,

the Road Traffic Act 1991, the Traffic management Act 2004 and The Borough of

Pendle (Nelson Off Street Parking) Order, 1998.

5. On-street parking is enforced by Lancashire County Council. This report looks at the

enforcement of off-street parking only.

6. This document reports on the performance of the CPE service for off-street parking

from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009.

7. Pendle Borough Council has 49 car parks, seven of which are operated as short-stay

disc parking-only car parks. Pendle Borough Council does not charge for parking on

any of its car parks.

8. In total, there are 1,597 spaces available.

9. Of the eight car parks that Pendle Borough Council enforces, six are in Nelson and one

is in Brierfield.

10. Visitors to the short-stay car parks are required to display a time clock which is visible

through the front windscreen displaying the time of arrival. Vehicles are allowed to stay

for two and a half hours on the car park with no return within two hours.

11. The Council does not enforce a time limit on any of its off-street disabled parking bays

when a Blue Badge is used.

12. Information about parking and parking enforcement is available via the Councils

website. The address is www.pendle.gov.uk and in addition a guide is produced giving

information about parking in Nelson town centre.

13. In addition to enforcement duties, the Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) also

undertake routine maintenance inspections, coning duties and distribution of parking

discs to local shops, Council offices and other public buildings.


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14. The service has a Parking Manager and a Business Support Officer with one CEO

(formerly Parking Attendant), operating across all of the car parks. The patrols are

carried out either on foot or in a vehicle.

15. Patrols are carried out between 8.00am and 6.00pm six days per week.

16. Anyone who has been issued with a PCN is able to pay online, by telephone or by

post. Appeals can either be made online or by post.

17. Processing of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) and challenges/appeals are dealt with

by a central-based back-office unit called ParkWise. ParkWise is the partnership name

for CPE for Lancashire County Council and 12 district authorities within Lancashire.

Parkwise is based in Preston and administrates the processing of off-street challenges,

etc for 12 district authorities as well as on-street challenges issued on behalf of

Lancashire County Council.

Financial

18. The income and expenditure of the Council in connection with off-street activity is

governed by Section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as amended by

Section 95 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. This requires that surplus income,

after meeting operating costs, is spent on parking facilities as a top priority.

19. Under the Traffic Management Act 2004, a higher and lower band of PCN was

introduced (70 and 50 respectively).

20. The table below shows the details of the off-street PCNs issued between 1 April 2008

and 31 March 2009.

Key Operational Statistics

Total number of PCNs issued 2,604

Number of higher level PCNs issued 180

Number of lower level PCNs issued 2,424

Number paid at discount 1,724

Number paid at full (or above) 360

Total number of PCNs paid 2,084Number of PCNs against which formal or informal reps made 1,725

Number of PCNs cancelled as a result of formal or informal reps 133

Number of PCNs cancelled for other reasons 21

Number of PCNs written off 0

PCNs progressing 366

Number of vehicles immobilised N/A

Table 1

21. When all attempts to recover outstanding charges have failed, Parkwise employsbailiffs, at no cost to the Authority, to obtain the charges due on our behalf. It is


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regrettable that this course of action becomes necessary, and it is only taken when all

other attempts to collect this money have failed.

Financial Information

Income Total 71,791

Expenditure Total 58,514

Income

PCN Income 71,791

Expenditure

CPE Management Costs 11,953

CEO Costs 28,770

CPE Premises 422

PCN Processing 15,306TEC Fees 760

TPT Fees 1,303

Total Expenditure 58,514

Surplus 13,277

Table 2

22. CEOs report all untaxed vehicles that are observed during the course of their patrols to

the DVLA. This action is undertaken at the request of the DVLA.

23. Pendle works in partnership with the Local Police and the CEOs under the name of

Partnership Plus, and occasionally has joint patrols. The CEOs occasionally assist the

Police with traffic management issues and report potential theft from vehicles, eg

where a handbag has been left on a car seat.

Adjudication

24. All members of the public have recourse to appeal to an independent adjudicator if they

wish to challenge a decision made by ParkWise about a particular Penalty Charge

Notice. Thirty-one representations were made to the National Parking Adjudication

Service over the year. From 31 March 2008, the National Parking Adjudication Servicebecame the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and their website address is now

www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk.

Background papers None.

Please contact the Transport and Coordination Manager if you require any further

information on the contents of this report. The officer can be contacted at Pendle Borough

Council, Engineering and Special Projects, Elliott House, 9 Market Square, Nelson,

Lancashire BB9 0LX or by telephone on 01262 661661.

Documents

Pendle Parking Services Annual Report 2008-09