NCP and that Council Meeting last night

NCP Chief Executive Bob McNaughton at the Council meeting in Sunderland last night referred to an 'independent' report by Birmingham University and the Audit Commission which reported good practice in relation to the Sunderland DPE.

I couldn't quite hear him utter that NCP paid for it ... of course he never told the councillors that.
I didn't hear that two NCP representatives ( Ian Kavanagh, Head of On Street Operations for NCP was one of the two and was sitting next to MacNaughton in the Sunderland Council Committee Room ... and didn't mention that the 'independent' report involved his input) state that they were on the Steering Group.

It appears that the only Audit Commission input was in the fact that they too had a representative on the Steering Group. ( I have just been informed by NCPs Tim Cowan that the member of the Audit Commission, Robert Buchanan actually chaired the Steering Group although this is not covered in the Foreword to the report by the Steering Group).

Mr. MacNaughton must also have forgotten that Caroline Sheppard, NPAS Chief Adjudicator (remember that NPAS are 'independent') was also on the Steering Group...and that Councillor Joseph Lawson sat quietly without pointing any of this out. He is after all the Sunderland Council member on the NPAS Joint Committee.

So, it ain't roses that we are smelling here Mr. McNaughton.

I am sure that Sunderland City Council's Policy and Scrutiny Committee will wish to see the full report ( it will be made available) and the NCP press release which can be seen here

Oh, and by the way ... Bob ... your press release doesn't mention in the Press Release header that NCP paid for the 'independent' report and that two of your guys were on the very small, select Steering Group,
(NCPs Tim Cowan points out that the Press Release does state that NCP sponsored the report
"Commenting on the report’s findings, NCP Chief Executive Bob Macnaughton, who sponsored the report,") which I accept is contained in the final paragraph of the press release.

The Sunderland public is not very tolerant of deceit and duplicity, and the matters highlighted in the BBC programme gave great cause for concern, and there are still some very serious concerns that have to be addressed with regard to matters arising from the DPE operation.

For the record I must say that the first I became aware of any covert filming was at 7.s0pm on Monday 2nd October when I watched the BBC Inside Out programme.

Let us hope that the councillors were not taken in by Mr. MacNaughton's convenient omission on Monday evening.

In the interests of balance NCPs Tim Cowan's e-mail is listed below in blue with my response to him in red.


Neil,

Your comments about the University of Birmingham report are a little selective, and wholly incorrect at one point.

The steering group was chaired by a member of the Audit Commission, and NCP has never sought to disguise the fact that we sponsored it – indeed, the press release you provide a link to also mentions this fact (this is the bit where your blog is incorrect, so I would be obliged if you could correct that bit forthwith).

Sponsoring the report did not mean we had any control over its contents; nor did the fact that we had representatives on the steering committee. As I mentioned, the steering committee was chaired by a member of the Audit Commission. I don’t know if you know much about the Audit Commission, but I can assure you that they would not have allowed NCP to control the content of the report even if we had wanted to.

In fact, we are very proud of the fact that we were able to help this groundbreaking report come about - we think it will be highly significant in moving the parking industry forward.

As the UK market leader in parking services, we feel we have a duty to lead the way, which is why we sponsored the report. The content, I am happy to say, was not our work, but that of Professor John Raine and his team. You will be familiar with him, I imagine, since he also advised the Transport Select Committee on their review of parking enforcement, a report whose recommendations NCP wholeheartedly supported.

I’d be obliged if you could reflect these comments on your blog.

Kind regards.

Tim Cowen
Director of Communications
Tel: 020 7290 2345
Mob: 07720 412 143

Tim,

Sorry about the truncated e-mail. It left my system as I was writing it.
I will post your comments on the blog.
Perhaps it may have been clearer if the press release header mentioned that this was an NCP sponsored independent report. It simply says:
"An independent report launched by the University of Birmingham today [Tuesday 5 July] urges local authorities to put customer service and public accountability at the heart of their parking enforcement regimes in order to address the growing public discontent that is so widely reported in the media."
In the interests of transparency I will also publish the amount of sponsorship if you wish to indicate, although I do believe that this will come from the series of questions I have posed to Professor Raine.

In light of all the problems in Sunderland, and in the interests of balance may I suggest that another independent report is commissioned to see what has gone wrong with the operation and implementation of DPE? If we both have input there can be no accusation of bias.

I am quite willing to share my concerns, and have always been approachable. Despite everything my main concern has always been with the way that the local authority has behaved with regard to its TRO and signing failings, and in making the necessary refunds as well as the general handling of DPE. I did offer to bring these concerns to Mr. MacNaughton's attention by letter in July of last year and in an approach in December in the House of Commons Transport Select Committee.
I also repeatedly offered to bring all these concerns to the attention of the local authority and my deliberate collecting of PCNs in Sunderland was intentional to bring all these matters into the public domain and to a head.
As your PAs and manager will confirm, I am always polite and courteous and I offered on numerous occasions, all documented, to give sight of evidence of missing / incorrect lines and signs and problems with TROs in order for this to be passed up the line. It was a main concern that an ordinary PA could be implicated because of the failings of others, and I must say that in all my on-street dealings with the PAs, Senior PAs, Supervisor and Mr. Coatsworth and Mr. Gilderoy they too were polite, courteous and always professional.

The offer still stands and as the evidence of incorrect signs and lines grows the problems of issuing PCNs in areas where the signs are non compliant or do not correspond to the TRO will undoubtedly create further problems for any enforcement regime in the City.

Finally, I wish to offer an opportunity for you to put the enforcement industry perspective to the public so that we don't appear to be totally one sided. As you probably know, I have a regular slot on TalkSPORT and I am sure that they would welcome you onto the programme and we could share the calls in the studio. If you are in agreement then I will sort the arrangements.

Regards,

Neil H