Investigation into Westminster's parking contract must leave no stone unturned ...

There needs to be a full, transparent investigation into the Westminster parking contract, leaving no stone unturned.


Parking enforcement and all issues surrounding it need to be addressed as a matter of urgency by the new Government otherwise the stealth tax stigma will be an albatross around their neck.

Parking enforcement needs to be perceived to be fair, proportionate and lawful and then perhaps it will gain the respect of Britain's motorists.

Check out the Motorists Manifesto for the Reform of Parking and Traffic Enforcement.

Revealed: ‘fiasco’ of Westminster’s parking contract
Lucy Tobin
14.05.10


If any of London's newly-elected councillors want a lesson in how not to run a contract-bidding process, they might like to take a field trip to Westminster.
The Conservative-run council has spent six months and more than £1 million trying to award a £50 million parking contract. After a long-running process that saw Westminster award the contract to a new firm, revoke the appointment, fight a law suit, and re-open the expensive tendering process for a second time, the Evening Standard can reveal it has now decided to stick with its incumbent parking company.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Labour leader in Westminster, today called for heads to roll over what he termed a “very unsatisfactory and expensive fiasco”.

The long-running process began at the end of last year when the council launched a procurement process for bidders to apply to run its parking contract. Then in February Westminster named Mouchel, the FTSE-listed support services group, as its preferred bidder for the four-year contract to provide parking enforcement services for the borough.

Mouchel then happily told shareholders at its half-year update in February: “It has been confirmed that we have been appointed as preferred bidder in Westminster, the largest on-street parking enforcement and city management service contract in Europe. The commission is for a four-year period (extendable to six).”

But not so fast, Mouchel. That was just the start of a near-farcical process which is said to have cost local taxpayers £1.1 million and has been branded “totally unprecedented” by perplexed contractors.

After naming the firm as its top choice, Westminster then admitted it had botched part of the procurement procedure. In-house lawyers discovered “a flaw in the contract document” which meant the council had to re-open the bidding. That admission then sparked complaints from one of the bidders, Apcoa of the US, one of the world's biggest parking enforcement companies.

Westminster then ran the entire tender again but with a new clause that effectively excluded Apcoa from bidding. Enraged, Apcoa launched a legal action to get the decision overturned but recently lost the case.

Now the Evening Standard has discovered that Mouchel has been stripped of its preferred status, with Westminster instead awarding that status to NSL, the parking giant formerly known as NCP, which has been operating the contract for the past seven years.
Mouchel insiders said they were furious at the action and may appeal. Apcoa is also expected to protest.

The preferred bidder status means NSL could be re-awarded the deal as early as next week.

Labour leader Dimoldenberg said: “This whole process has cost the council over £1.1 million. Now we find the original contractor has got the job. It's a ridiculous, crazy situation. Residents and motorists are entitled to a full explanation over this mismanaged parking contract. Somebody at Westminster needs to take personal responsibility for this very unsatisfactory and expensive fiasco which has revealed very serious failures.”

Campaigners called for an official inquiry into how the contract was awarded. Graham Jones, spokesman for the campaign group No to the Bike Parking Tax, said: “Westminster awarded the contract to Mouchel, then faced a legal challenge which was thrown out of court, so why did it not stick with its original decision? This scandal requires a council inquiry.”

Kevin Goad, Westminster council's head of commissioning, said: “Following the discovery of a flaw in the initial contract process we stopped the procurement exercise. This was to ensure we were being fair and transparent to all those involved in the process which was the right and legal course of action to take. This week, the council has named a preferred bidder for its new parking enforcement contract. We are currently in a ten-day standstill period and expect to sign the formal contract with them later this month.
“Any additional costs incurred through this process will be recovered many times over through substantial savings with the new contract.”

Tim Cowen of NSL commented: “We have noted the announcement that we are preferred bidder but would not wish to comment further because of the legal 10-day standstill period.”
An insider in the parking enforcement industry stalwart said he “couldn't record a process quite like this ever before”. He added: “We're now in tthe standstill period, when it would normally be very, very unusual for a challenge to crop up, but the rest of this case has been unprecedented, so who knows?”

The £50 million contract covers monitoring and maintenance of CCTV cameras to pick up illegal U-turns, illegal driving in box junctions and other parking offences. It also pays for the 100 or so parking attendants patrolling the streets of Westminster.

Danny Chalkley, Westminster's cabinet member for city management, did not respond to calls.

Westminster parking contract blunder ...

I am sure that there will be many motorists out there who have made simple mistakes and have ended up with a penalty. However, the biggest parking enforcement council is 'allowed' to just sweep another 'mistake' under the carpet and start again.
It's about time that someone, somewhere got a grip before there is no credibility left and parking enforcement is brought into total national disrepute.
Nothing short of a full, independent investigation showing warts 'n' all will be acceptable, and would finally put all matters beyond doubt.

Inquiry call after Westminster Council admits bungle
BBC News

Westminster has been embroiled in numerous parking rows in 2010
A full investigation into Westminster Council's parking department has been demanded by campaigners after BBC London learned it cancelled the tendering of a contract due to a legal flaw and must start from scratch.

The council named Mouchel as preferred bidder for the four-year, £50m contract to provide parking enforcement services for the central London borough.
But the process was scrapped when in-house lawyers pointed out they had "judged the preferred bidder on price criteria which went beyond what was originally published to tenderers".

Westminster insists both contracts were properly tendered and maintains it acted within the rules at all times.
Mouchel has made no comment.

It comes after two separate inquiries were launched into contracts previously awarded by Westminster's parking department.

In one of the inquiries, the EU is investigating Partnerships in Parking (PiP), a body set up by the council to allow several local authorities to join forces to buy cheap parking services.

Westminster is supposed to be the flagship parking enforcement authority and yet, once again, we have another blunder
Neil Herron, parking campaigner

Canadian company Verrus was awarded the contract to provide pay-and-display services, pay-by-phone, parking tickets and debt collection to the councils.
But it is alleged that, when additional councils joined PiP, they broke European Union rules by automatically starting to use Verrus, rather than tendering it out.

In the other inquiry, which started in February, police are investigating allegations of fraud against two senior officers at Westminster Council.
That case concerned the awarding of another multi-million pound parking enforcement contract to a different private company.

'Flagship authority'
The latest revelation about the Mouchel contract has led parking campaigner Neil Herron, of Parking Appeals, to call for a full investigation into contract procedures at the authority.
He said: "Westminster is supposed to be the flagship parking enforcement authority and yet, once again, we have another blunder.
"We have seen illegal controlled parking zones, Diplomatic Bays not compliant and police investigations.
"It is about time a full, independent investigation was conducted into the whole of the parking enforcement regime."

Leith Penny, Westminster Council's director of city management, said: "Westminster Council has suspended the procurement process for parking enforcement following the discovery of a flaw in the contract document.
"To be fair and transparent to those involved in the process we have decided to end the current procurement process.
"We will instead start a new accelerated procurement process with a successful tenderer expected to be announced in about three months time."

It is the latest in a series of controversies to embroil Westminster Council's parking department.
In February, BBC London revealed Westminster's diplomatic parking bays had not had the correct authorisation for three decades, meaning millions of pounds of fines may be unlawful.
In January it was caught ordering officers to find ways to use parking to make more revenue, in an apparent breach of the law.
Westminster took £72m of revenue from parking last year, almost twice as much as the next highest earning London council.

Parking goldmine lures fat cat enforcer to Westminster

London Evening Standard
Simon English
01.12.09

In the lucrative world of car parking contracts, Westminster Council is the bonanza prize, the jackpot at the end of the rainbow. Around 600,000 vehicles come into Westminster's 8.5 square miles every day.

That's like a giant school of plankton in a small pond to your average traffic warden whale — open wide and ticket. There are too many cars chasing too few parking spaces and in the frustrations of an average working day, some drivers take a chance in the usually false hope that they might just be lucky…

The council itself says it's not legally allowed to make a profit from parking enforcement. Its “surplus income” from parking — £35 million last year, thanks very much — goes to pay for the men on the streets and for other transport projects.

For the firms running the enforcement deal, however, it's a goldmine, worth around £12 million a year. For the last seven years the contract has been held by NSL, the former services arm of National Car Parks which split from the main company and is now owned by private equity.

Now it's up for grabs. This week firms who want to bid for the right to be parking enforcer for the next four years — with an option for two more after that — have to submit their final proposals. In the running, I am told, are three firms: NSL again, Apcoa (formerly the Airport Parking Company of America), and Mouchel, a publicly listed company formed in 2003 from the merger of two engineering firms, Mouchel and Parkman.

A preferred bidder shortlist will be approved in January, with a decision taken shortly after. Mouchel is perhaps the most interesting of the three in the frame. It only entered parking enforcement relatively recently and has been making headway in winning contracts, securing deals in Newham (the so-called Olympic borough) and Hillingdon among others.

In chatting to officials about which firm might win the prestigious Westminster deal, an intriguing name came up. Stuart Lawrenson is, to those in the know, one of the most successful players in the UK parking industry — a fat cat enforcer, you might say. He is also the former chief executive of Central Parking Ltd where he was accused of misappropriating assets belonging to the American firm for his own benefit. Lawrenson resigned as a director of the company and paid £130,000, as well as forfeiting Central Parking shares, in settlement of the allegations.

In filings to the Securities & Exchange Commission, Central Parking blamed former managers of its UK arm for “unauthorised related party transactions and improper and inaccurate accounting entries”. Lawrenson is back in the game. I'm told he attended a meeting with council officials at a Westminster hotel last month to discuss the parking enforcement contract, allegedly in the pay of Mouchel.

I asked the company what role Lawrenson plays for them, and got the following: “Mouchel does not comment on the details of live procurements as these are confidential and commercially sensitive. Stuart Lawrenson is not, nor ever has been, an employee of Mouchel but works for a company that provides technology products to the parking industry. In common with other companies, we use some of these as part of our parking enforcement offer.”

Lawrenson has paid his fine and is perhaps entitled to continue his career. As long as everyone involved knows of his history, there's probably no cause for concern.