08 July 2008
Savings are being made across North Wales and the local regulation of parking significantly improved for local residents and businesses as a result of an innovative partnership across four local authorities.
A team of just five people who make up a shared service centre for the ‘Wales Penalty Processing Partnership’ is responsible for processing all the penalty notices across Denbighshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey and Wrexham and are achieving collection rates for parking fines that are 15% over and above the UK average.
Councillor Eryl Williams (Denbighshire County Council), Spokesperson for the Wales Penalty Processing Partnership said:
“The shared service centre is saving money and time. Denbighshire was the first council in North Wales to take on civil enforcement powers for parking. We have built on our experience to establish an innovative shared service centre which has saved the other partners 33% of the operating costs it would have cost to run the service on their own. Furthermore over £100,000 has been saved in set up costs.”
“Local authorities issue penalty notices for parking so that they can work with local people to ensure that vehicles are parked where it best suits local residents and businesses. We all need the local regulation of parking but we must ensure that is provided at the lowest possible cost.”
“We expect further benefits as more councils join the partnership and we take on processing environmental penalties like dog fouling, fly tipping, graffiti and littering for partners who wish to undertake environmental enforcement.”
“The partnership is a powerful enabler to take on civil enforcement of parking. For example, it can help tackle some difficult parking issues in town centres for the benefit of residents and can ease town centre traffic flows. Furthermore it can help to improve health and safety in shopping areas and town centres as well as protecting the interests of disabled drivers by regulating the behaviour of other motorists.”
Steve Thomas, Chief Executive, Welsh Local Government Association added:
“The WLGA was instrumental in the set up of this partnership through the Regional Partnership Board for North Wales. It is an excellent demonstration of the potential benefits of councils working together to deliver both efficiencies and service benefits. I look forward to more pace setting initiatives like this from North Wales.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors
• The Wales Penalty Processing Partnership is a partnership established to collect penalty charge notices (PCNs). It was set up in April 2007 by Denbighshire County Council, Gwynedd Council and Isle of Anglesey County Council, with Wrexham County Borough Council joining in March 2008. The current focus of the business is the collection of parking penalty charge notices levied by local authorities. The Partnership has the capability to process fixed penalty notices for other environmental services.
• Parking tickets are issued by locally employed and managed staff working to locally determined policies. The partnership collects the money due to each partner authority through a dedicated PO Box, phone line and website. Debt recovery is actioned where necessary.
• Denbighshire County Council employs the staff of the partnership on behalf of the partners and as the lead authority works under the supervision of a Management Board consisting of representatives of each partner council. A partnership agreement defines the services that the lead authority delivers, the obligations of the partners and the processes by which the partnership is governed and managed.
The services delivered by the partnership are: -
- Recording penalty charge notices (PCNs) on specialist software
- Cash collection services
- Customer management dealing with queries, complaints and appeals relating to PCNs.
- Debt recovery
- Supporting best practice exchange, advice and support relating to parking and traffic management
• The partnership processed just under 33,000 PCNs in 2007/8 at a cost of £200k and collected £907k in payments for the partners. The payments collected also have to cover the cost of civil enforcement officers employed by each council.
• Motorists are able to appeal, firstly to the Council and then to the national Traffic Penalty Tribunal, if they think the local authority has acted unfairly in giving them a ticket.
For more information contact: Natasha Weeks