Issue - meetings

The first update was with respect to ‘ECS 32’ which was online self-service transactions to challenge PCNs. This was projected to be approximately 1.7% below target. It was noted that the Parking Team now had a quote for a QR code which could be put on stationary. This would make it easier for the public to make payments on their mobile phones. An update of the impact of QR code usage would be brought to a future committee meeting.

The next update was with respect to ‘ECS 34’ which was the pay and display machines which was currently approximately 1% off target. Members were briefed that the 12 pay and display machines in Bromley Town Centre  were continually being broken into. Members noted that APCOA were responsible for any losses. They were now ensuring that the parking machines contained  less than £200 in them at any given time and the machines in the town centre were being emptied every evening.

Members heard that the machines were being drilled into, which then meant that the machines were out of order until a trained operative from APCOA came to repair them. APCOA had tried to strengthen the machines and extra bolts had been added to the parking machines but to no avail. The police had been informed of every machine that had been broken into. A Member enquired if the CCTV Team was being asked to monitor the machines that were being broken into. The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking stated that it may be the case that these machines were not in the view of the CCTV cameras, but he would investigate this further to see if any cameras could be re-deployed or re-angled. 

The Chairman drew attention to ‘ECS15’ which was the arboricultural contract, remarking that ‘the numbers over the last few months were dire’. He wondered what was driving this and what was the cause of the trends going the wrong way. He felt that the green indicator was rather ambitious. The Assistant Director for Environment responded that regular meetings were taking place with the contractors to closely monitor the contract and the associated targets. He explained that there was some backlog of work that still needed dealing with and in some cases specialised equipment was required--they were also certain difficulties because of the Covid pandemic. The contractors were looking to commission a third-party contractor to bring the work back in line within the target indicators and the contractors themselves were looking to employ new specialist staff.

A Member remarked that the public perception was that the contract was poor and that the contractors were underperforming. He could not understand why Covid would hinder outdoor work and expressed the view that there was probably not much high-level work to deal with either. In his view it was primarily the case that the contractors were not performing adequately.

The Chairman commented that he would be interested to see the contract performance figures going forward and expressed the view that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86