Parking Ticket Data

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Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, including:
Larkfield Leisure Centre
The Angel Centre
Tonbridge Swimming Pool
Poult Wood Golf Centre
Tonbridge Castle

Dear Neil Houston

Thank you for your e-mail, requesting that certain information is made available to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Council has now started to process your request.

The Council always aims to disclose information as quickly as possible. However, if for some reason we cannot complete your request within 20 working days (ie by 18 September 2009) we will write to you again before that date to explain why and to let you know when you will receive the information. Please remember that documents sent by post may take few extra days to reach you.

The Council will normally disclose all the information which you have requested unless there is a good reason for not doing so. Under the Act, some types of information may be exempt from the duty to disclose it. Some of the exemptions are "absolute" and some only apply where it is in the public interest not to disclose the information. If any information will not be disclosed because it is exempt, we will write to you and explain why. Please note that, whilst the Council will disclose documents which already exist and which contain the information which you have requested, the Council is not required to compile documents specifically to deal with your request.

Once the information has been identified, the Council can also ask that you pay a fee to cover the costs of any printing, photocopying, postage, etc., for processing and delivering the information to you. If the cost of collating the information you have requested costs the Council more than £450 you will also have to pay this charge. Details of any fee to be paid will be notified to you as soon as possible.

Please quote the reference number FOI 09/166 in any future correspondence about this request.

If you have a complaint about the way the Council has handled your request for information you may use the Council's complaints procedure, which is available on the Council's website. If, after using this procedure, you remain unhappy with the way the Council has dealt with your request you may ask the Information Commissioner to review the case.

Julie Beilby
Central Services Director
Freedom of Information Co-Ordinator

website: www.tmbc.gov.uk

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Dear Mr Houston

I refer to your request dated 18 August 2009 and would reply as follows.

Request 1. - Having sought the advice and assistance of our system
provider we have received the following response.
" Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions are not in a position to provide a
data extract from your Parking Gateway database to comply with your
recently received Freedom if Information request. You can retrieve the
majority of the information by using the reports available within the
Notices module, using flexi reports or by using Parking Power cube if you
have it. However I do believe that the citizen who requested the
information does not accept Powercube reports. Unfortunately you will not
be able to create one report which will contain all the information, you
will need to create several reports.
We also understand that you may have been asked for an SQL database
extract but would like to advise that even though Tonbridge &
Malling administer the database, you will not have the knowledge of the
structure or the data contained within, so you cannot comply with
providing an SQL extract."

Even if a Powercube Report was acceptable this is a very new facility for
us and there is no one currently with the skills and knowledge to prepare
it within the due time scale. We are liaising with our own IT Section to
identify what reports are possible and in what format although early
indications are that to produce them will take considerable time and will
require the Council to seek a charge in line with the Freedom of
Information Regulations. I will advise you of this when I am in a position
to do so.

In the meantime are you are to clarify or modify your request.

Request 2.

I am able to confirm that all Civil Enforcement Officers are salaried with
no incentives or bonuses attached to their remuneration.

I will contact you further when I have established what reports are
possible, in what format and any additional charge that may be necessary.

Yours sincerely

Roy Edwards

>>> Neil <[1][FOI #17128 email]> 18/08/2009 20:01
>>>
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

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Dear Mr Houston

In regard to your Freedom of Information Request I have tried twice
to upload the information you require and have not been able to.

Your direct e-mail returns the attachments as too large and the
link via your webpage has an HTTP error.

Please advise an alternative method of sending the files if
available.

Yours sincerely

Lisa Francis Administration Officer Parking Office Tonbridge and
Malling Borough Council