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

Dear Mr Houston,

Does your request relate to on street parking as this is not clear in
your FOI request. If so I can tell you that prior to May 2008, this task
was the sole duty of the Nottinghamshire Police. Can you please clarify
your request?

Kindest Regards,
Denis Scaife
Parking Management Officer
Bassetlaw District Council
The Turbine
01909 512211

Please reply with historical emails included.

show quoted sections

10:24 >>>
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

show quoted sections

Denis ,

The request related to both on and off street car parking.

If off street, I'd envisage these to be council owned carparks.

As Nottingham Police covered stree parking pre May 2008 - then
could you please forward on the FOI request to the relevant
department.

Thanks,
Neil

Neil,

Further to your recent Freedom of Information request, I confirm that in order to reply, I need to clarify what organisation you are enquiring on behalf of in line with Data Protection legislation.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards.

Johanne

This email is only for the use of the addressee. It may contain information which is legally privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy, distribute or disseminate this email or any enclosure to anyone other than the addressee. If you receive this communication in error please delete it and notify the sender.
All communications sent to or from this organisation may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation

show quoted sections

Johanne,

I'm requesting this information as an individual.

Thanks,
Neil

Johanne,

Can I please have it noted, that all FOI requests are supposed to
be 'applicant/motive blind' and you had no legal right to request
the status, nor reason I am requesting this information.

As well as the data/information requested, I would like a response
detailing why the question was asked.

This is in line with the best practice, issued by the ICO
(http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...)

Neil.

Dear Mr Houston

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your request for information about the enforcement of
parking restrictions, specifically penalty charge notices in
Nottinghamshire. Your request has been transferred to us by Bassetlaw
District Council. Your request was received on 4 August 2009 and I am
dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case I will
let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be
required to pay before I will proceed to deal with your request.

You will receive the information requested within 20 working days unless
the Council does not hold the information or there is a reason for it to
be withheld. I will write to you in any event.

If you have any requirements regarding the format any information should
be supplied in, e.g. the language to be used, audio, large print and so
on, then please let me know. If you have not already done so, please
supply your email address if you are willing to receive the information
electronically.

If you have any queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact
me.
Further information about your rights is also available from the
Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
WILMSLOW
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0845 630 6060 or (01625) 545745
[1]www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely
Colin Sawers
Programme Assistant - Customers & Access
Communities Department
Nottinghamshire County Council

Trent Bridge House
Fox Road, West Bridgford
Nottingham, NG2 6BJ

Tel: (0115) 977 3408
Fax: (0115) 977 4329
e-mail: [2][email address]
Visit our website at: [3]www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk
E-mails and any attachments from Nottinghamshire County Council are
confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the
sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without
making copies or using it in any other way.
Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses
before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check
before opening attachments, since the County Council accepts no
responsibility for loss or damage caused by software viruses.
Senders and recipients of email should be aware that, under the Data
Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the contents
may have to be disclosed in response to a request.
Nottinghamshire County Council Legal Disclaimer

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Houston,

Please find attached the only electronic records that we possess pre de-criminalisation of parking.records. All other records are hard copies and the research of these would prove too costly provide.

Notts County Council will provide you with the post de-criminalisation of parking records. They are aware of your request.

Please contact Notts Police for there records concerning on street enforcement pre-decriminalisation.

Kindest Regards,
Denis Scaife
Parking Management Officer
Bassetlaw District Council
The Turbine
01909 512211

Please reply with historical emails included.

This email is only for the use of the addressee. It may contain information which is legally privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy, distribute or disseminate this email or any enclosure to anyone other than the addressee. If you receive this communication in error please delete it and notify the sender.
All communications sent to or from this organisation may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Houston

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Your request for information has now been considered and in answer to your
questions:

1. Raw data set of parking tickets issued in the name of the council
within the last five year period.

Following a search of our paper and electronic records I have established
that the information you requested is not held by the Council in this
format. In order to produce this information a special programme would
have to be written to extract the raw data from our system which we are
not obliged to carry out under the Freedom of Information Act.

In answer to your supplementary question our data is not geospatial. The
recording system does not link to any other system although data is
semi-automatically requested from other systems and electronic transfer
and import is used. For example payments system records that payments has
been made and registers this in our parking system, requests for owner
information is sent to the DVLA electronically and received back
electronically but does involve manual intervention to validate and
complete the process.

2. Information on any bonus schemes in place for our parking enforcement
officers.

We do not operate a reward or bonus scheme for our parking enforcement
officers.

If you have any queries or concerns then please contact me.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision,
you should write to the Corporate Complaints Manager, County Hall, West
Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 7QP or e-mail [1][email address].

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint or review, you
may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner
can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
WILMSLOW
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0845 630 6060 or (01625) 545745
[2]www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Colin Sawers
Programme Assistant - Customers & Access
Communities Department
Nottinghamshire County Council

Trent Bridge House
Fox Road, West Bridgford
Nottingham, NG2 6BJ

Tel: (0115) 977 3408
Fax: (0115) 977 4329
e-mail: [3][email address]
Visit our website at: [4]www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk
E-mails and any attachments from Nottinghamshire County Council are
confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the
sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without
making copies or using it in any other way.
Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses
before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check
before opening attachments, since the County Council accepts no
responsibility for loss or damage caused by software viruses.
Senders and recipients of email should be aware that, under the Data
Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the contents
may have to be disclosed in response to a request.
Nottinghamshire County Council Legal Disclaimer

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/

Colin,

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)

Also - I don't believe you have stated the system that is used to
record the PCNs.

I'd also like a response regarding the request for my 'motive' as
earlier stated in the email chain.
Thanks,
Neil

Dear Mr Houston

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Your request for information has now been considered and in answer to your
questions:

Is it possible that the IT/database administrator can produce the selected
field extract from the database backend?

I am sorry but we are not able to produce the data you require in this
format. Our parking management system has a number of reports, however we
do not have one with the level of detail that you require. After checking
with our Traffic Manager team I have been able to provide the attached
report which details the number of tickets issued for every street and car
park that we enforce as a partnership in Nottinghamshire. The report
lists a location and the number of tickets issued by contravention. Our
system has a test area which is also included on the report, you should
therefore ignore the first 2 pages of the report as these are test
locations and no real tickets were issued. You should also ignore tickets
in the test column at real locations. Finally you should note that
parking contraventions starting with a "W" are not parking tickets but
warning notices only.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 we are only required to provide
information that is held. In order to answer your question as stated we
would need to commission at cost our system supplier to extract this
data. The information is therefore not held as it is not immediately
accessible and something that the council uses in this format.

I don't believe you have stated the system that is used to record the
PCNs?

The system we use for the Nottinghamshire Partnership is Chipside Case
Management (see [1]http://www.chipside.com/Software/CaseMan...).

I'd also like a response regarding the request for my 'motive' as earlier
stated in the email chain?

You originally sent your request to Bassetlaw District Council one of the
Nottinghamshire Parking Partnership (You can see more about the
partnership at [2]http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/parkin...).
Reading back through the history of your case Bassetlw District Council
asked you this question before the request was transferred to
Nottinghamshire County Council as we were belived to hold the information
that you required. You would therefore need to raise your query with
Basselaw District Council. You can find details of the Bassetlaw Freedom
of Information process at
[3]http://www.bassetlaw.gov.uk/services/cou... and
you can find the Bassetlaw complaints process at
[4]http://www.bassetlaw.gov.uk/services/cou....

If you have any queries or concerns then please contact me.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision,
you should write to the Corporate Complaints Manager, County Hall, West
Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 7QP or e-mail [5][email address].

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint or review, you
may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by the Council. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
WILMSLOW
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0845 630 6060 or (01625) 545745
[6]www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Colin Sawers
Programme Assistant - Customers & Access
Communities Department
Nottinghamshire County Council

Trent Bridge House
Fox Road, West Bridgford
Nottingham, NG2 6BJ

Tel: (0115) 977 3408
Fax: (0115) 977 4329
e-mail: [7][email address]
Visit our website at: [8]www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk
-----Neil <[FOI #15678 email]> wrote: -----

To: Colin Sawers <[email address]>
From: Neil <[FOI #15678 email]>
Date: 25/08/2009 08:23PM
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Parking Ticket Data

Colin,

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)

Also - I don't believe you have stated the system that is used to
record the PCNs.

I'd also like a response regarding the request for my 'motive' as
earlier stated in the email chain. Thanks, Neil

show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of the handling of my
FOI request 'Parking Ticket Data'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pa...

The reason is it is stated that the data cannot be produced, whilst
other councils who use the Chipside system (such as Brentwood
Borough Council) have been able to fufil such a request.

Yours faithfully,

Neil

Hi Neil

Thank you for your e-mail. I have passed on your request to the relevant
contact within the Authority requesting that they reply to you directly.

regards

Customer Services
Bassetlaw District Council
[1][Bassetlaw District Council request email]
This email is only for the use of the addressee. It may contain
information which is legally privileged, confidential and exempt from
disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy,
distribute or disseminate this email or any enclosure to anyone other than
the addressee. If you receive this communication in error please delete it
and notify the sender.
All communications sent to or from this organisation may be subject to
recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant
legislation

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Bassetlaw District Council request email]

Dear Sir,

As previously stated, we do not possess the Chipside records. I have already mentioned that these are held by Notts Parking Partnership and you request has been forwarded to them.

Kindest Regards,
Denis Scaife
Parking Management Officer
Bassetlaw District Council
The Turbine
01909 512211

Please reply with historical emails included.

show quoted sections