‘PARKING FIRM ARE FINE BY US’ - NSL Services set to be handed £50m parking contract

Published: 14 May, 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

PUBLIC confidence in City Hall’s parking operation is set to be tested after it emerged Westminster’s £50million enforcement contract is likely to be awarded to NSL Services.
The decision to allow NSL to continue has been signed off and is expected to be endorsed publicly next week. The firm is reportedly unpopular with many motorists for what they see as its aggressive ticketing ­policy.

It signals the end of a three-month debacle which saw council officials hail a “new dawn” for parking when it revealed the French engineering giant Mouchel was the preferred bidder for the contract in February. An unforeseen legal flaw forced City Hall to tear up the agreement and begin the re-letting process from scratch.

The error cost the council more than £1million to set straight and has been the subject of a High Court legal challenge.
Motorists, opposition leaders and staff at the council’s parking bases have reacted to the news with a mixture of surprise and apprehension. Some fear simply continuation of the status quo with no freshening up of the services.

Council sources, however, say the terms of the contract will ensure a significantly different and less punative parking enforcement operation in the borough.
Mouchel would not comment until the end of the 10-day “standstill” period next week, but are expected to be livid with the decision as the company had still been hoping to win the contract.
In February City Hall announced the firm would oversee a “radical overhaul” of parking, introducing “soft enforcement” that would scrap automatic fines in favour of warning notes.
The contract is worth £50m over four years making Westminster’s eight square miles the most coveted patch in the country for those in the parking business.
Tim Kaufman, author of the influential parking website nutsville.com, said: “I have grave concerns over the impending announcement.

“Questions must surround why Westminster’s preferred bidder Mouchel have now lost out to NSL Services. According to the High Court case notes Westminster Council raised the qualifying bar for the second procurement process. This excluded APCOA (the third firm in the bidding competion whose accusations of ‘unlawful and unfair’ actions by the council were thrown out by a judge last month) from the bidding process, because they were unable to achieve Westminster Council’s new ‘turnover requirements’. I fear this may indicate that Westminster Council are viewing parking enforcement as a revenue raiser. I think this is a sign that motorists in Westminster will face either more of the same or worse for at least the next four years.”

A review into the blunders that derailed the letting process, which at the time were described as a “flaw in the contract document”, point to possible explanations for the  decision, which was signed off by the cabinet member for transport Danny Chalkley on Monday. Among the mistakes was a “failure to give sufficient attention early enough as to how the bids would be financially evaluated”.
Westminster took £72m in revenue from parking in 2009, almost twice as much as any other local authority in the capital.
Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group, said: “This parking contract fiasco has cost residents over £1.1m – but nobody will be disciplined and not one Conservative councillor will take responsibility for these serious failures.
“Next time the Conservatives claim they are best the council in the country ask them why residents are over £1m out of pocket because of their failures.”

Last year City Hall ordered an investigation into the  contractors following claims from parking wardens in the West End Extra and in a Cutting Edge documentary on Channel 4 that NSL bosses were setting them ticket targets. In Februrary a leaked email to this newspaper suggested parking wardens were being pressed to issue at least one ticket per hour. NSL denied the memo was evidence of targets, saying they were simply monitoring wardens who had been “noticed issuing an unexpected level” of parking notices. NSL’s previous contract with Westminster ran for seven years between 2003 and 2010.
Dr Leith Penny, Westminster council’s strategic director of city management, said: “We have now selected a firm to be the preferred bidder for the council’s parking enforcement contract. We are currently in a legal ten-day standstill period where unsuccessful bidders can challenge the decision.  Assuming there are no challenges, we expect to publicly name the preferred bidder and formally sign the contract later this month.”

NSL were approached by the West End Extra but would not comment on the contract.
hension. Some fear a continuation of the status quo with no freshening up of the services.
Council sources, however, say the terms of the contract will ensure a significantly different and less punitive parking enforcement operation in the borough.
Neither NSL nor Mouchel would comment until the end of the
10-day “standstill” period next week, but Mouchel is expected to be livid with the decision as the company had still been hoping to win the contract. It is not known whether Mouchel will challenge the decision.

In February City Hall announced the firm would oversee a “radical overhaul” of parking, introducing “soft enforcement” that would scrap automatic fines in favour of warning notes.
The contract is worth £50m over four years making Westminster’s eight square miles the most coveted patch in the country for those in the parking business.
Tim Kaufman, author of the influential parking website nutsville.com, said: “I have grave concerns over the impending announcement.
“Questions must surround why Westminster’s preferred bidder Mouchel have now lost out to NSL Services. According to the High Court case notes Westminster Council raised the qualifying bar for the second procurement process.

“This excluded APCOA [the third firm in the bidding competition whose accusations of ‘unlawful and unfair’ actions by the council were thrown out by a judge last month] from the bidding process, because they were unable to achieve Westminster Council’s new ‘turnover requirements’. I fear this may indicate that Westminster Council are viewing parking enforcement as a revenue raiser.

I think this is a sign that motorists in Westminster will face either more of the same or worse for at least the next four years.”
A review into the blunders that derailed the letting process, which at the time were described as a “flaw in the contract document”, point to possible explanations for the  decision, which was signed off by the cabinet member for transport Danny Chalkley on Monday. Among the mistakes was a “failure to give sufficient attention early enough as to how the bids would be financially evaluated”.
Westminster took £72m in revenue from parking in 2009, almost twice as much as any other local authority in the capital.

Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group, said: “This parking contract fiasco has cost residents over £1.1m – but nobody will be disciplined and not one Conservative councillor will take responsibility for these serious failures. Next time the Conservatives claim they are the best council in the country ask them why residents are over £1m out of pocket because of their failures.”
Last year City Hall ordered an investigation into the contractors following claims from parking wardens in the West End Extra and in a Cutting Edge documentary on Channel 4 that NSL bosses were setting them ticket targets.

In February a leaked email to this newspaper suggested parking wardens were being pressed to issue at least one ticket per hour. NSL denied the memo was evidence of targets, saying they were simply monitoring wardens who had been “noticed issuing an unexpected level” of parking notices. NSL’s previous contract with Westminster ran for seven years between 2003 and 2010.
Dr Leith Penny, Westminster Council’s strategic director of city management, said: “We have now selected a firm to be the preferred bidder for the council’s parking enforcement contract.

“We are currently in a legal 10-day standstill period where unsuccessful bidders can challenge the decision. Assuming there are no challenges, we expect to publicly name the preferred bidder and formally sign the contract later this month.”