Agenda item

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR – PLACE

 

To provide the Committee with an update on the status of the Pay on Exit Parking Project and to provide a comparison between 2025/26 Quarter 1 and 2024/25 Quarter 1 parking transaction figures and the number of Penalty Charge Notices issued per car park.

RESOLVED: That the Overview & Scrutiny Committee noted the Quarter 1 update of the Pay on Exit Parking Project.

 

REASON FOR DECISION: This report is following the request of the Committee for an update on the Pay on Exit Parking Project and to provide a comparison between 2025/26 Quarter 1 and 2024/25 Quarter 1 parking transaction figures and the number of Penalty Charge Notices issued per car park.

Audio recording – 1 hour 0 minutes 45 seconds

 

Councillor Donna Wright, as Executive Member for Place, presented the report entitled ‘Update on Pay on Exit Parking in Council Operated Car Parks’ and advised that:

 

·                The Council commissioned Flowbird UK to replace parking machines across all its car parks.

·                New machines were touchscreen and ticketless with a check-in, check-out system that accepted contactless payments.

·                Signage was provided in every car park to inform users how to pay.

·                Except for Woodside Car Park in Hitchin, one machine in each car park accepted cash payments, and receipts were available in all car parks on request.

·                By late March, new machines had been installed in all car parks except for Norton Common and Hitchin Swimming Centre due to Traffic Regulation Orders.

·                A communication strategy had been in place through the rollout phase and comprised member briefings, press releases, website FAQs and social media engagement by the Communications Team to address concerns.

·                Support had also been provided by Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) and the Customer Service Centre.

·                Teething problems arising from the new machines included network connection issues which had caused delays to payments and penalty charge notices (PCNs) to be issued.

·                Touchscreen visibility was also a problem in the sunlight.

·                Planned fixes included the installation of industrial sim cards, modems, software resolutions, signage changes and the consideration of zoning adjacent car parks to provide alternative payment options.

·                Touchscreens would also be regularly cleaned to ensure visibility. 

·                New signage would address user confusion from some pre-paid ticket holders who had attempted to check-out when they did not need to, and blue badge and season ticket holders who were not required to register for a parking session.

·                PCNs had increased 61% from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025 partly due to users entering their Vehicle Registration Marks (VRMs) incorrectly under the new system, but also the recruitment of two more CEOs which had allowed for more coverage.

·                Challenges to PCNs had increased from 32% to 44% and of these, 78% had been cancelled compared to 66% in Q1 the previous year as a more lenient approach to PCN challenges had been taken during the rollout phase.

·                Despite initial problems, the new system had modernised their car parks and increased flexibility for users.

·                A 26% reduction in PCNs from April to July showed that the public were adapting to the new machines.

·                Most users had successfully continued to pay for parking since the rollout.

·                Even with the recent increase in PCNs, they still counted for less than 1% of all successful parking transactions.

·                Transaction volumes were up 6% overall, therefore, the new machines had not discouraged motorists from parking in Council owned car parks.

 

The following Members asked questions:

 

·                Councillor Ralph Muncer

·                Councillor Jon Clayden

·                Councillor Tina Bhartwas

·                Councillor Paul Ward

·                Councillor Martin Prescott

·                Councillor Claire Winchester

 

In response to questions, Councillor Donna Wright advised that:

 

·                Signage and information boards had been installed prior to the rollout phase and guidance including FAQs had been published on the Council website.

·                CEOs had been present in car parks for the first two weeks after the rollout to increase the ease of use and accessibility of the new machines. 

·                An initial increase in PCNs had been anticipated, however, they had not anticipated the number of VRMs that had been incorrectly entered.

·                Human error would always exist in the check-in, check-out system, which is why PCNs had been rescinded where VRMs had clearly been wrongly inputted.

·                Pay by phone methods might allow some VRM cross checking with the DVLA, however, doing this would not be possible due to privacy and logistical issues.

·                Some PCN challenges had not received a response due to time lag. They had either been responded to since the publication of the report or would be responded to in due course.

·                The voucher system for the Free After 3 scheme in Royston car parks would require users to display a ticket on their windscreen.

·                Still requiring check-in after 3pm had allowed them to build a robust data baseline that would inform third party subsidy discussions. 

·                Over 3,000 free parking sessions had been voluntarily registered in August, however, the number of unregistered sessions was unknown as they had not issued PCNs for failure to comply with this. 

·                A decision on the Free After 3 subsidy would be taken as part of the Parking Tariff Review 2026/27 report that would be discussed at Cabinet in early 2026.

·                Discussions with Royston First BID and Royston Town Council would be held on the subsidy to inform the review. 

·                The Communication Strategy had concentrated on providing adequate signage and guidance on information boards and the machines themselves. 

·                The public were informed about the new machines through press releases and via their Outlook magazine, both prior to and after their installation.

·                Guidance on how to use the new machines was posted on their website on 18 March. 

·                FAQs were not initially available after the rollout as a buildup of questions was required to inform which questions were most frequent.

·                A slower rollout might have mitigated some of the issues experienced, however, the period of disruption would have been longer and economies of scale gained by the quick rollout would have been lost. 

 

In response to questions, the Strategic Planning & Projects Manager advised that:

 

·                Signal strength and connection tests were undertaken by Flowbird UK in each car park before installation and they had informed the Council that roaming SIM cards would allow the machines to connect to the best network available.

·                Hitchin was well known for its weak network connectivity and consequently, most problems associated with this had been experienced there. 

·                Various solutions had been investigated including additional sim cards, antennae, and hiring an independent company to assess signal strength.

·                After locking the machines onto the O2 and EE networks, network connectivity issues were alleviated in Hitchin car parks except for those on Portmill Lane where they would look to relocate the machines to address this problem. 

·                The project had been delivered within budget.

·                The cost of relocating the machines would be negotiated with the contractor if necessary as they had been assured that the new machines would perform.   

·                Industrial strength SIM cards had already been introduced to all machines to improve their connectivity, however, this had not improved the connectivity at the Portmill Lane car parks. As such, a modem and router had been trialled but this had only caused more signal dropouts.

·                In response, antennas had been installed onto the machines to test their signal and they would be advised of the outcome in due course.

·                Further solutions would be prepared by the contractor if this was unsuccessful.

·                Flowbird UK were a reputable contractor and had rolled out the check-in, check-out system across other local authority car parks.

·                If a machine was out of order, it would display a message to use an alternative machine and CEOs could also display physical notices.

·                Signage had been budgeted for within the project.

·                Costs for solutions to the problems experienced had not been discussed with the contractor. 

·                New signage for blue badge holders had been displayed as near to disabled bays as possible and there was also information on the Council website on this. 

·                As long as a user could identify the car park they had used and provide proof of payment, this could be cross checked through the system and allow a PCN to be cancelled, even if a significant VRM error had been made.

·                An Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) CCTV system had been investigated but due to the small size of their car parks, this system had been deemed to be too expensive.

·                They would speak to the contractor about attaching covers over the touchscreens to help with visibility in sunlight.

 

In response to questions, the Director – Place advised that:

 

·                They were working with the Legal Team to resolve the agreement with Knebworth Parish Council on the subsidy for the 30-minute free parking tariff in St Martin’s Road Car Park.

·                Decisions on PCN challenges were made by officers in the back office rather than CEOs who merely enforced parking infractions.

·                The PCN challenge process was managed by the Customer Directorate, but the increase in the number of challenges would be investigated.

 

There were no points made as part of the debate.

 

Councillor Jon Clayden proposed and Councillor David Chalmers seconded and, following a vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED: That the Overview & Scrutiny Committee noted the Quarter 1 update of the Pay on Exit Parking Project.

 

REASON FOR DECISION: This report is following the request of the Committee for an update on the Pay on Exit Parking Project and to provide a comparison between 2025/26 Quarter 1 and 2024/25 Quarter 1 parking transaction figures and the number of Penalty Charge Notices issued per car park.