Agenda item

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 the Committee needed to see an improvement. This was a contract that had been struggling for a while. The Assistant Director for Environment promised to investigate this matter in more detail; he said that he needed to acquire a more detailed understanding of the issues, so he would go away and investigate the issues and problems in more detail and would update the Chairman and the Portfolio Holder as soon as he had done this.

The Vice Chairman expressed concern about trees not being planted and he hoped that the tree planting process could be completed within the relevant time scale and planting season. He returned to the problem of the car parking machines not working, highlighting the fact that this was a persistent problem and that quick fixes were resulting in lost income. He wondered how bad machines had to get before they would be replaced and commented that this was an issue that had been raised last year.

The Vice Chairman asked if it was APCOA’s responsibility under the contract to replace faulty machines. The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking responded that if a machine was ‘beyond repair’ then indeed that was the case. However, APCOA would be reluctant to replace machines with new ones if at all possible, because eventually the new machines would be made redundant. There was also the issue of what was the precise definition of a machine that was ‘beyond repair’.

The Vice Chairman asked if the department could keep a log of machines breaking down so that it could have this sort of information on a spreadsheet which would be useful. The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking responded that as far as he was aware, some work on this was already being undertaken on behalf of the parking enforcement officer---he would go away and find out how far this work had progressed.

A Member suggested that a mapping exercise be conducted with the police so that proactive steps could be taken to catch the culprits. The Chairman promised to re-raise the matter with the police.

The Committee noted that work was now being undertaken on the revised draft Portfolio Plan for 2021/22, and this would be presented to the PDS Committee in March 2021.

RESOLVED that:

1.  The Performance Overview update be noted.

2.  An update of the impact of QR code usage would be brought to a future committee meeting.

3.  The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking investigate further with the CCTV Team to see if any cameras could be re-deployed or re-angled so that monitoring could take place of the parking machines in Bromley Town Centre that were being broken into.

4.  The Assistant Director for Environment investigate further with respect to the issues being encountered by the arboricultural contractor, and report back on these issues to the Chairman and the Portfolio Holder.

5.  The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking find out how much progress had been made regarding the production of an excel database detailing incidents related to faulty parking machines.

6.  The Chairman re-raise the matter of the robbery of money from the parking machines in Bromley Town Centre with the police.