Parking Services Annual Report 2009 / 2010

Department for Transport annual parking report (Off Street) 2009/2010

Introduction

The District of Torridge can be found on the North Devon coast in the South West of England and covers a predominantly rural area of 380 square
miles with a population of approximately 65,600 residents. Our main towns are Bideford, Great Torrington and Holsworthy.

Civil Parking Enforcement

Civil Parking Enforcement commenced in our off-street car parks in accordance with the Traffic Management Act 2004 on the 5th May 2008. Prior to
this date Devon did not have either Civil Enforcement Area or Special Enforcement Area status.

For information relating to on-street parking in the District of Torridge please contact Gary Powell, Civil Parking Enforcement Officer, Devon County
Council.

Telephone 01392 382244 or email: gary.powell@devon.gov.uk

Alternatively use the following link to the Devon County Council website www.devon.gov.uk

Car Parks

Torridge District Council has 26 surface car parks, which in total provide 2355 parking spaces. The breakdown of these is as follows:

Car Park Type Number of car parks Total number of spaces

Pay and Display 21 2190
Free 5 165

Civil Enforcement Officers

The Council currently employs 4 full time Civil Enforcement Officers to carry out enforcement of its off-street car parks between the hours of 8am–
6pm each day.

Enforcement

Parking is a highly emotive subject for which we strive to ensure all of our customers are treated in a fair, consistent and equable manner. In
support of this we have the following processes in place:

We will generally extend the period for payment of the discounted fee in circumstances where a challenge against the serving of the Penalty Charge
Notice has been received. This is providing that the challenge was received in writing (letter, fax, email etc.) by not later than the last day of a 14-
day period commencing with the date on which the Penalty Charge Notice was served.

Non-display of either a valid Pay and Display Ticket or Permit. A significant number of motorists fail to correctly display a valid ticket in their vehicle
(the ticket may have fallen down when they exited the vehicle or it was displayed face down etc). In these circumstances, providing it is the first
recorded contravention (on our system) and a challenge is received in writing by not later than the last day of a 14 day period commencing with the
date on which the Penalty Charge Notice was served and evidence of a valid ticket or permit is produced for the date and time in question, the
Penalty Charge Notice will be cancelled. However, the Council reserves the right to reject any subsequent challenges against the serving of a Penalty
Charge Notice for the same contravention.

Statistical information for Torridge District Council (Off-street) 2009/10

As of 1st October 2010

Department for Transport category Off Street

(1a) Number of higher level PCNs issued : 228
(1b) Number of lower level PCNs issued : 3,611
Number of PCNs issued with no charge level : 0
(1c) Total number of PCNs issued : 3,839
(1d) Number of PCNs paid at discount rate : 2,139
(1e) Number of PCNs paid at the non-discount rate : 295
(1f) Total number of PCNs paid : 2,434
(1g) Total number of PCNs unpaid : 1,405*
(1h) Number of applications to register a debt at TEC : 287
(2a) Number of PCNs issued by a CEO subject to challenges (statutory and other) : 1,223
(2b) Number of PCNs issued from an approved device subject to challenges (statutory and other) : 0
(2c) Total number of PCNs subject to challenges : 1,223
(2d) Number of PCNs cancelled as a result of a successful challenge (PCN correctly issued) : 826
(2e) Number of PCNs cancelled as a result of a successful challenge (PCN incorrectly issued) : 67
(2f) Total number of PCNs cancelled as a result of a successful challenge : 893
(2g) Number of PCNs which resulted in adjudication because of a challenge : 4
(2h) Number of PCNs written off for other reasons : 54
(3b) Number of vehicles clamped : 0
(3c) Number of vehicles removed : 0
Number of cases where Location group could not be defined : 0
*Note that this value includes 670 cancellations as a result of customer focused policies such as cancellation as a 'first offence' for the
non display of a Pay and Display ticket.
Financial information for Torridge District Council (Off-Street)

Account Value
Income on Parking Account (PCN revenue) 09/10 £85,655
Expenditure on Parking Account 09/10* £574,745
Totals (surplus) / deficit -£489,090
* This includes central support recharges and depreciation

Conclusions

The ethos of providing enough quality, clean and affordable parking that meets our customer's needs is at the core of our parking services. This is
also reflected in our approach to enforcement:

In the second year of operation under the provisions of the Traffic Management Act 2004 we cancelled 670 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) as result
of our customer centric policies as previously detailed. This represents a slight increase from the previous financial year.

On average we responded to customers' challenges and representations within 6 working days.

The percentage of PCNs paid (63%) appears to be lower than might be expected but this should be balanced against the number of PCNs cancelled
as a result of our customer-focused approach. With this in mind we consider this to be a good recovery rate. The percentage of PCNs paid remains
unchanged from the previous financial year.

The reason that 94% of the Penalty Charge Notices served were at the lower rate is because there are very few contraventions in off-street car
parks that are subject to the higher rate. This percentage remains unchanged from last year indicating that enforcement has been consistent.

Overall the Parking Service operated successfully in the second year of operation under the provisions of the Traffic Management Act 2004. This is
especially so given when considering such factors as the state of the economy.

Simon Toon

Parking Service Manager