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Mr Nick Houston Date: 25^th September 2009

Dear Mr Houston

Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your recent Freedom of Information Request. Your request asked for the following information: -

Your request

I would like to request some information relating to the enforcement of parking restrictions, specifically penalty charge notices. Please provide the following information:-

1. I would like to request the raw data set of parking tickets issued in the name of

the Council within the last five year period 22 July 2004 till now) broken down by:

date, time, location, narrative of infraction, current status of case, next status of

case, transaction details (ie. date, time and method of payments made), officer

ID.

2. I would also like to request any information regarding `reward'/bonus

schemes/contracts in place for your parking enforcement officers. This is

envisaged to cover the details of any systems, including (where bonuses are

paid) the amount per officer per year, for the last five years.

Council's response

A decision has now been made to part refuse your request. I will now explain my decision for this below.

With regards to Q1 I am unable to provide this information requested. This is explained in further detail in the “grounds for refusal section”.

With regards to Q2 the Council's statutory parking enforcement requirements has been transferred to a private contractor called Apcoa, since 1^st February 2007. The Council has no involvement in Apcoa's HR or Performance related policies.

Grounds for refusal section

The Council has estimated that to respond to Q1 would involve a substantial amount of work of trawling through individual records on the Council's PCN database. As this work is estimated to exceed the 18-hour cost threshold the Council is not obliged to respond to this part of your request.

Further advice and assistance

Under s16 of the Act the Council must provide advice and assistance, where possible. In these circumstances I suggest you redefine the scope of your request to a more reasonable level so the Council can respond to your request.

Refusal notice

A refusal notice is attached outlining the Council's reasons for refusal.

I hope this information is assistance to you.

Copyright procedure

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use this information for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you re doing and news reporting. Any other re-use of this information, for example commercial publication requires the permission of the Council as the Copyright holder. All re-use requests will be treated under the Re-Use of Public Information Regulation 2006.

Appeal procedure

Should you wish to appeal against the decision made you can write to the Records Management Team Leader to have your case reviewed by our Internal Review Panel. This should be sent to us within four weeks and must clearly state the reasons for your appeal and your FOI reference number. The Records Management Team address is as follows: Records Management Team, Town Hall and Civic Buildings, Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE33 2RL.

Information Commissioner's office (ICO)

Should you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your appeal you can write to the Information Commissioner to have your case independently reviewed.

The Information Commissioner is the Government's Independent Body responsible for overseeing the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Please do note that the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the Council's internal appeal procedures. All correspondence to the ICO must quote the Council's reference number and your reasons for your appeal.

The ICO's contact details are as follows: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF. More information can be found on the ICO's website at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

If you have any further queries about this matter then please do not hesitate to contact me on my number below:

Yours sincerely

Marie Galloway

Records Management Team Leader

Records Management Team

Tel: 0191 424 6538

Email: [email address]