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
(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.

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

Dear Mr Houston,

Thank you for your request for information regarding Penalty Charge
Notices, which was received on 12th August, 2009 and is being dealt with
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We are therefore required to
provide you with a response within 20 working days, which will be on or
before 10th September, 2009.

If we require any clarification or further details, we will contact you
as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to
contact me, remembering to quote the reference number above in any
communications.

Yours sincerely

John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

Tel: (01267) 246108
Mewnol/Internal: 6108
Ffacs/Fax: (01267) 246134

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Houston,

I refer to your request for information regarding Penalty Charge Notices
(PCNs) which was received on 12^th August, 2009 and has been dealt with
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I will respond to your request in the order it was presented using
numbered points as headings for ease of reference.

"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 (i.e.
date, time and method of payments made), officer ID."  

Please refer to the attached documents. These include most of the
requested information, with the exception of transaction details.

<<22.07.04 to 30.03.08.pdf>> <<31.03.08 to 31.07.09.pdf>>

The reasons for not including this information are set out below.

"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."  

No bonus/incentive payments are paid to Civil Enforcement Officers
(CEOs).  

"3. 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." 

The software used is ICES 360. This is linked to hand held units used by
CEOs for the issuing of PCNs.  The data fields which are recorded on the
electronic system used by our Parking Services section are attached.

<<Data Fields.pdf>>

You also ask in your request whether "requests of a similar nature" have
been received by the Authority. However, it is unclear how you define the
term "similar nature". For instance, you may be referring to all requests
concerning PCNs, or those that are similar to your request in terms of
their scope.

Nonetheless, I can confirm that requests regarding PCNs and parking have
been received by the Council both in 2009 and previous years, however, I
would say that all differ in terms of their nature, the specific
information being requested and so forth. Please contact me should you
require more information.

Returning to the information I have not provided in response to part 1
above, I am unable to provide the transaction details alongside the other
items of information, as the way in which the system is configured does
not enable us to extract these specific details with the other information
provided, in the same report. Two separate reports would therefore have
to be generated and it would then be necessary to match up each PCN record
manually.

As over 63,000 PCNs have been issued during the period covered by your
request, based on an estimate of around 20-30 seconds to match each
record, we have calculated that it would take over 300 hours to complete
this task.

Under Section 12 of the Act, a public authority is not obliged to comply
with a request if it considers that to do so would exceed the appropriate
limit. This limit is defined in The Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 as £450, which
equates to 18 hours of work at the standard rate specified in the
Regulations of £25.00 per hour.

As explained above, this limit would be far exceeded were the Authority to
comply in full with this part of your request.

Please therefore consider this email as a formal notice under Section 17
(5) of the Act that I refusing to comply in full with your request.

However, if you were able to refine or reduce the scope of this part of
your request, for instance, within a far smaller date range, we may be
able to supply some information. Please contact me should you wish to
discuss this.

If you disagree with this decision or the way in which your request has
been dealt with, you have the right to complain in the first instance to:

The Head of Administration & Law

Carmarthenshire County Council

County Hall

Carmarthen

SA31 1JP

Email: [email address]

If you remain unhappy with any subsequent decision, you have the right to
appeal to the Information Commissioner to rule on your complaint. You may
write to him at:

Information Commissioner

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

If I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

Tel: (01267) 246108
Mewnol/Internal: 6108
Ffacs/Fax: (01267) 246134

Mae*r e-bost hwn ac unrhyw atodiadau yn gyfrinachol ac wedi*u bwriadu at
ddefnydd yr unigolyn y*u cyfeiriwyd ato/ati yn unig. Os derbyniwch y neges
hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i*r sawl a*i hanfonodd ar unwaith,
dilëwch y neges o*ch cyfrifiadur a dinistriwch unrhyw gopïau papur
ohoni. Ni ddylech ddangos yr e-bost i unrhyw un arall, na gweithredu ar
sail y cynnwys. Eiddo*r awdur yw unrhyw farn neu safbwynt a fynegir, ac
nid ydynt o reidrwydd yn cynrychioli safbwynt y Cyngor. Dylech wirio am
firysau eich hunan cyn agor unrhyw atodiad. Nid ydym yn derbyn unrhyw
atebolrwydd am golled neu niwed a all fod wedi*i achosi gan firysau
meddalwedd neu trwy ryng-gipio*r neges hon neu ymyrryd â hi.

This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for
the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. If received in error
please notify the sender immediately, delete the message from your
computer and destroy any hard copies. The e-mail should not be disclosed
to any other person, nor the contents acted upon. Any views or opinions
expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those
of the Council. You should carry out your own virus check before opening
any attachment. We accept no liability for any loss or damage which may be
caused by software viruses or interception/interruption of this mail.

Hi,

Thankyou for fulfilling my request, I understand the reason behind
there being no payment information and am happy with that.

I kindly request though, that you provide to the PDF's 22.07.04 to
30.03.08.pdf & 31.03.08 to 31.07.09.pdf as the original excel/txt
files, and not as a PDF (As was requested)

Thanks,
Neil

Dear Mr Houston,

Thank you for your email. The files requested are attached.

Yours sincerely

John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

Tel: (01267) 246108
Mewnol/Internal: 6108
Ffacs/Fax: (01267) 246134

show quoted sections