Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I would like to request
some information relating to the enforcement of parking
restrictions, specifically penalty charge notices.

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
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 to ‘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.

Regarding part 1. ideally I would like the location unit to be
'street' but if this is not practical then under your section 16
duty to advise and assist I would expect you to contact me to
discuss how you record this geospatial data so that I may narrow my
request in a way that works for both of us.

As a supplementary, under section 16, I would also ask that you
provide some detail about the recording processes of this parking
information. E.g. What software is used? What data fields are
recorded? What other data sets it links to, etc.

If this information is held by an outside contractor then it is
your responsibility under the FOIA to obtain that information.

If it is held by another public body then please can you inform me
of this and if possible transfer the request to that public body.
My preferred format to receive this information is by electronic
means. For both parts I would like the response to be in the form
of a raw text file, tab delimited, with text qualifiers where
required.

If you need any clarification of this request or if it is too broad
in any way please feel free to email me. If some parts of this
request
are more difficult to answer than others please release the
answerable material as it is available rather than hold up the
entire request for the contested data.

If FOI requests of a similar nature have already been asked could
you please include your responses to those requests. I would be
grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received
this request, and I look forward to hearing from you within the
20-working day statutory time period.

Yours faithfully,

Neil Houston

Please refer to the attached correspondence.

Kind Regards

Jane Holden
Corporate Services Officer
Town Hall, Duke Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA14 2LD
Tel: 01229 876452
Fax: 01229 876515

Did you know that under Freedom of Information Act 2000, an email can
form part of a response for information?

show quoted sections

Please refer to the attached correspondence.

Kind Regards

Jane Holden
Corporate Services Officer
Town Hall, Duke Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA14 2LD
Tel: 01229 876452
Fax: 01229 876515

Did you know that under Freedom of Information Act 2000, an email can
form part of a response for information?

show quoted sections

Jane,

Thanks for what you have provided thusfar.

I can see that you have provided some summarised figures of PCN
issued.

What I was requesting, and I'mn sorry if there was any confusion.
Was the 'raw' data - i.e row by row the data that made up those
figures - with just the specified columns.

Is it possible to provide me with the data on that basis, rather
than on an aggregated level?

Thanks,
Neil

Hello Neil,

I'm afraid the level of information sent is just about the limit of what
we can provide. The system used doesn't have a reporting system as such
and the Council purchased additional software purely to deal with FOI
request, not to the level of your request however. Without this
software the information we would be able to provide would be along the
lines of that detailed in the enclosed disclosure letters I sent with my
original request.

I apologise we cannot provide you with more detailed information.

Kind regards

Jane Holden
Corporate Services Officer
Town Hall, Duke Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA14 2LD
Tel: 01229 876452
Fax: 01229 876515

Did you know that under Freedom of Information Act 2000, an email can
form part of a response for information?

show quoted sections

Jane,

Can you confirm that the system does not have an option to Print?

Specifically, an option to print the list of all tickets issued in
a daterange.

Further to section 16, I would like to request all the
documentation you have regarding this system, including the name of
the software vendor who provides the ICES (formally complex)
system.

Thanks,
Neil

Neil

Please clarify what you mean by "documentation" by specifying the exact
nature of the documentation.

I will not be able to take this matter further without extra information
from you.

Jane Holden
Corporate Services Officer
Town Hall, Duke Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA14 2LD
Tel: 01229 876452
Fax: 01229 876515

Did you know that under Freedom of Information Act 2000, an email can
form part of a response for information?

show quoted sections

Hello Neil,

The system does have a to print facility of course, but it cannot
produce a report to print the list of tickets in a date range, merely
the number of tickets in a date range. In order to make absolutely
certain we have just rung the helpdesk of the software provider. They
have confirmed there is no reporting facility available for the system
or in powercube (the additional reporting tool purchased to provide more
detailed reports) that will give individual penalty numbers and
associated information with that PCN number.

The Council does not have any specific documentation regarding the
system. The name and address of ICES is:- Compex (ICES) 7 Hill Street,
Bristol, BS1 5PU.

I apologise that your request will not be met but if you have any
further information needs in the future then please contact me.

You have the right of appeal against the decision. If you wish to appeal
please set out in writing your grounds of appeal and send it for the
attention of the Monitoring Officer at the address on my disclosure
letter. You can also submit your appeal using this email address
[Barrow in Furness Borough Council request email]

Kind regards

Jane Holden
Corporate Services Officer
Town Hall, Duke Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA14 2LD
Tel: 01229 876452
Fax: 01229 876515

Did you know that under Freedom of Information Act 2000, an email can
form part of a response for information?

show quoted sections

Jane,

Thanks for confirming what information you are able to provide, by
using the 'front end reporting' features of the system you use to
record PCN details.

I would just like to clarify - is it possible that the IT/database
administrator can produce the selected field extract from the
database backend (In my experience, databases often sit on MySQL/MS
SQL/Oracle backends - and the IT/database Administrator of the
system can often extract out information that the systems
'reporting' options don't allow).

If the size of the data extract is too large for it to be
compressed (zipped) and emailed, then I am happy to provide you
with FTP details (the IT contact could transfer the files), or to
receive the data on a CD/DVD. I understand that to produce some
reports in a 'paper' format is not the best for either of us.

Sizewise, the physical number of records will be no issue for me; I
cannot narrow down the request anymore than it already is. (That
being a limited number of fields, by PCN issued, for the 5 year
period).

Obviously if some of the information is not held in the database
(perhaps regarding the payment status etc,) then I would not want
to trouble you by having someone to review the actual case records
(as I understand this would be above and beyond the £450/2.5 day
limit)

Thanks,
Neil

Neil,

As per my previous email the Council has explored all possibilities with the software provider and it is not possible to extract the information you have requested.

Kind regards

Jane Holden
Corporate Services Officer
Town Hall, Duke Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA14 2LD
Tel: 01229 876452
Fax: 01229 876515

Did you know that under Freedom of Information Act 2000, an email can form part of a response for information?

show quoted sections