"Financial incentives removed from parking contract"

Councillor Steve Reed, Leader of the London Borough of Lambeth, explains how the authority has tackled the issue of removing financial incentives from its parking scheme.

“ In 2003, Lambeth Council signed a new contract with its parking contractor, Control Plus. The contract included thresholds that reduced the contractor’s income if specified levels of ticketing were not met.

Arguably, these operated as incentives to issue more tickets. Appeals against unfair tickets shot up by 71 per cent in a matter of weeks. The press was full of lurid stories about over zealous ticketing and claims that parking attendants were under pressure to meet targets and maximise the contractor’s income.

By the time of the council elections in May, parking had become a key is in several marginal wards. All the political parties offered new approaches to parking enforcement. Our preference was to renegotiate the contract immediately to remove the financial incentives.

Following our election win, councillors confronted sceptical town hall officers with the unwelcome news that we were serious about renegotiating the contract. Without a precedent, Lambeth’s transport staff were going to have to break new ground. Following a clear political steer, officers moved fast and completed negotiations within months.

By October, the council was ready to announce a new contract that would no longer rely on financial incentives. In an attempt to simplify the contract, the 21 areas of activity previously monitored have been reduced to just nine.”

The full article can be accessed by using this link to the IDeA website

http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=5474686

Parking Complaints Online will be asking a number of questions both to the Council and to the contractor. We hope to highlight any innovative aspects of the new contract but in the absence of hard information on contract volumes and enforcement numbers, the Council’s decision seems worthy of further consideration. The details of the contract are unlikely to be withheld on grounds of commercial confidence. Readers are invited to submit questions. We will add any queries that you may have to our own list of questions.

Posted on November 15, 2006 | Permalink

Comments

what a strange politics, I can't understand a thing

Posted by: generic viagra | March 12, 2010 at 02:40 PM

Financial incentives to hand out parking tickets basically led to thoudsands of motorists being penalised for greed. It's about time something was done, next on the list to tackle are freelance clampers.

Posted by: Driving Offence solicitor | July 13, 2010 at 04:43 PM