DELEGATED POWERS REPORT NO. 1493 SUBJECT: Implementing Scratch Cards to Facilitate Cashless Parking Control sheet All of the following actions MUST be completed at each stage of the process and the signed and dated report MUST be passed to Governance Service for publishing All reports 1. Governance Services receive draft report Name of GSO Paul Frost 2. Governance Services cleared draft report as being constitutionally appropriate 3. Finance clearance obtained (report author to complete) 4. Staff and other resources issues clearance obtained (report author to complete) 5. Trade Union response received (Staffing issues only) 6. Legal clearance obtained from (report author to complete) 7. Policy & Partnerships clearance obtained (report author to complete) 8. Equalities & Diversity clearance obtained (report author to complete) 9. The above process has been checked and verified by Director, Head of Service or Deputy (report author to complete) 10. Signed & dated report, scanned or hard copy received by Governance Services for publishing 11. Report published by Governance Services to website Name of GSO Paul Frost Name of Fin. officer Alex Altman Name of Res. officer N/A Name of TU rep. N/A Name of Legal officer Sheila Saunders Name of P&P officer Julie Pal Name of officer Julie Pal Name Pamela Wharfe Name of DSO Paul Frost 11/11/11 Name of DSO Paul Frost 11/11/11 Officer reports: 12. Head of Service informed report is published and can be implemented. Name of DSO N/A Cabinet Member reports: 13. Expiry of call-in period N/A 14. Report circulated for call-in purposes to Business Management OSC members & copied to Cabinet & Head of Service Name of DSO N/A
ACTION TAKEN UNDER DELEGATED POWERS BY OFFICER IN CONSULTATION WITH CABINET MEMBER(S) (EXECUTIVE FUNCTION) Subject Officer taking decision Implementing scratch cards to facilitate cashless parking Interim Director of Environment, Planning & Regeneration of decision 11 November 2011 Summary Officer Contributors Status (public or exempt) Wards affected Enclosures The Council made a decision to remove pay and display machines throughout the borough via a Delegated Powers Report signed 5 th August 2011. The proposal contained in this report offers an additional cashless alternative to facilitate people wishing to park in the borough who do not have a mobile telephone and a credit card. John McArdle, Interim Parking Manager Neil Richardson, Highways Manager Public All None Reason for exemption from callin (if appropriate) Not applicable Contact for further information: Pamela Wharfe x 7988 Serial No. 1493
1. RELEVANT PREVIOUS DECISIONS 1.1. Delegated Powers report of the Cabinet Member for Environment (number 1375) dated 5 th August 2011 titled Re-provision of Parking Services. 1.2. Delegated Powers report of the Interim Director of Environment and Operations on 18 th March 2011 (1288), titled Contract with PayPoint Ltd to provide a cash option to the cashless parking services across the borough gave authorisation to obtain a quote from a single supplier (PayPoint Ltd) to provide a cash option to the cashless parking service on existing terms, and gave authorisation to accept the quote received from PayPoint Ltd and to purchase the service until the new arrangements for delivery of the entire parking service are in place. 1.3. Delegated Powers report of the Interim Director of Environment and Operations and the Director of Commercial Services dated 24 March 2011 (number 1289), titled Extension of Contract with Verrus UK Ltd to provide cashless parking services across the borough gave authorisation to obtain a quote from a single supplier (Verrus UK Ltd) to continue the cashless parking service on existing terms, and gave authorisation to accept the quote received from Verrus UK Ltd and to purchase the cashless parking service until the new arrangements for delivery of the entire parking service are in place. 1.4. Cabinet report of the Cabinet Member for Environment & Operations on 29 th November 2010, title Future of the Parking Service sought authority to initiate procurement for a new Parking Service to be provided externally which is anticipated to provide the Council with a significantly more efficient service and financial savings, and allow the Council to provide a better more efficient parking service to citizens. 1.5. Delegated Powers report of the Director of Environment and Transport on 27 th February 2009, titled Cashless Parking reviewed the trial of cashless parking in off street car parks; authorised the implementation of cashless parking borough-wide with effect from 22 nd March 2009; and approved the appointment of Verrus (UK) Ltd to provide cashless parking services borough wide for two years. 2. CORPORATE PRIORITIES AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS 2.1 The addition of a further method of payment for on and off street parking is expected to encourage the use of town centre parking in the borough. If shopkeepers purchase a supply of parking scratch cards they can offer this to their customers. It is possible that shopkeepers may wish to include a convenience cost to the cards which the Council cannot be held responsible for. The offer of parking scratch cards should help maintain Barnet as A successful London suburb.
3. RISK MANAGEMENT ISSUES 3.1 I do not consider the issues involved are likely to raise significant levels of public concern or give rise to policy considerations as the proposal responds to an existing level of concern about payment methods for parking. 4. EQUALITIES AND DIVERSITY ISSUES 4.1 Under the Equality Act 2010, the council and all other organisations exercising public functions on its behalf must have due regard to the need to: a) eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act; b) advance equality of opportunity between those with a protected characteristic and those without; c) promote good relations between those with a protected characteristic and those without. The protected characteristics referred to are: age; disability; gender reassignment; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. It also covers marriage and civil partnership with regard to eliminating discrimination. 4.2 The implementation of a further parking method will help those who do not have access to, or are less comfortable with, using a mobile telephone and credit card to be able to park more easily around the borough. Anecdotally this is more likely to apply to older people in the borough. This method therefore adds to the existing pay point facility. The delegated powers report on Re-provision of Parking Services had a full Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) attached to it. It was recognised in that EIA that the removal of pay and display machines could disadvantage some older customers. The PayPoint option (of paying by cash for parking in a shop displaying a PayPoint symbol) was included to mitigate that possible disadvantage. However, as further mitigation the provision of a parking scratch card option will enable residents to have a supply of scratch cards so they do not have to walk a distance to use a PayPoint facility. 5. USE OF RESOURCES IMPLICATIONS (Finance, Procurement, Performance & Value for money, Staffing, IT, Property, Sustainability) 5.1 There will be additional costs in providing the parking scratch card alternative. The cards themselves are expected to cost around 5 pence a card to produce. There may need to be an administrator employed to process requests for vouchers (by email). The estimated costs are laid out below. Item One-off costs Cost per annum Signage 5,000 Traffic management order (if required) 3,000
Administration 27,000 Printing 5,000 Total 8,000 32,000 Every effort will be made to reduce the costs laid out above. There will be a need to raise the additional revenue from the cards to cover this additional cost i.e. if the cost of the card was 2 for an hour s parking (which is the current cost of an hour s parking in the borough), 20,000 would need to be sold to cover the cost of implementing the scheme and administering it for a year. In the first instance the additional administration cost will be not be incurred but may be need to be funded depending on the take up of the scheme. 5.2 The production of the cards and the relevant signage changes will all be done in-house and therefore a procurement exercise is not required to purchase these services. 5.3 In terms of actual income, indications at Westminster City Council who administer a parking card scheme are that the income in respect of parking card sales reflects a very small percentage (approx 0.3%) of their total casual parking income. It is not clear yet whether the parking scratch cards will bring in more income than the existing methods available to motorists. 5.4 The one-off set up costs will be funded from central contingency. The annual running costs will be met from the Special Parking Account. 6. LEGAL ISSUES 6.1 On the basis that the implementation of parking scratch cards to facilitate cashless parking will not result in change(s) to car parking fees, a Traffic Management Order/variation to a Traffic Management Order will not be required. 6.2 If changes are to be made to car parking charges there must be compliance with the legislative provisions and procedural requirements for implementation of/variation to Traffic Management Order(s). 7. CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS 7.1 The Council s constitution in Part 3, Responsibility for Functions, paragraph 6.1 provides that Chief Officers may take decisions, in consultation with the Cabinet Member concerned (or without consultation where it is a decision authorised to be taken by the Chief Officer under the Contract Procedure Rules or it involves the implementation of policy or earlier decision of the Council or Cabinet or Committee or it is in respect of operational matters within the Chief Officer s sphere of managerial or professional responsibility and is not significant in terms of budget or policy). 7.2 This decision is not significant in terms of budget and follows the policy position laid out in the delegated powers report as agreed by the
Cabinet Member for Environment (number 1375) dated 5 th August 2011 titled Re-provision of Parking Services 8. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 8.1 In light of the decision to remove pay and display machines across the borough with Pay by Phone parking to be the primary parking payment method, concern has been raised regarding the potential negative impact on a minority of motorists who it is felt will be unable or unwilling for a variety of reasons to utilise the Pay by Phone service. These reasons could include physical impairment, not possessing a debit/credit card and/or a mobile phone. 8.2 Provision has been made to incorporate a new payment alternative via PayPoint as a secondary payment option which would negate the requirement for a card or mobile phone, via outlets across the borough, although this has only gone some way to allay the concerns raised and the impact on certain motorists. Accordingly officers have investigated the potential of introducing parking Scratch cards as a further alternative method of cashless payment for parking. 8.3 Parking scratch cards are of a similar form to the existing Council s Visitor Vouchers in that its use requires the relevant day and month to be scratched off and exposed in addition to the time of arrival (hours and minutes) in the relevant parking place. 8.4 The proposal in this paper is to provide a parking scratch card which can be purchased by email from the Council. The Council will also investigate making this available via an online process. The cards will be for an hour s parking and will cost 2.00 (based on current charge rates). They will need to be used in conjunction with the advertised parking times in the borough i.e. there are areas where parking time is limited to 2 hours. It will be open to local businesses to purchase the cards and re-sell them to customers to enable them to park close to shops. 8.6 Like a Visitor Voucher, the parking scratch card would be displayed in a manner where the details on the card could be seen by a Civil Enforcement Officer through the windscreen of the vehicle. The motorist will need to use sufficient scratch cards to cover the time that they are parking for. An insufficient cover in terms of time could lead to a parking penalty charge notice being served. 8.7 The introduction of parking scratch cards will be communicated via posters, the Council s website and information sent to local media and revised signage. Production and distribution of the cards will be delivered as soon as practically possible. 9. LIST OF BACKGROUND PAPERS 9.1 None