Parking Ticket Data

Neil made this Freedom of Information request to Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

The request was refused by Bury Metropolitan Borough Council .

From: Neil

1 August 2009

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

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From: Owen, Michael A
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

1 August 2009

Thanks for your e-mail. I am out of the office until Wednesday 12 August and will be unable to access my e mails. If your message was urgent please contact Stephen Kenyon on 0161 253 6922 or via [email address]. Cheers. Mike
4* Excellent Council
Bury Council is now rated as a four star 'excellent' council by the Audit Commission.
This rating recognises the council's commitment to providing first class services
and providing good value for money.

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From: Owen, Michael A
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

13 August 2009

Dear Mr Houston

I have just returned from leave and seen your request

I acknowledge receipt and have asked the relevant officer to respond
direct to you

Regards

Mike Owen
Director of Finance and E-Governemnt

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From: Foudy, John
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

11 September 2009

Dear Sir

I refer to your request of 1st August for parking ticket data which was forwarded to me on 13th August 2009.

I cannot answer the first question where you request the raw data of parking tickets, within the last five years, broken down into various categories, without exceeding the statutory limit of £450. Furthermore the details requested regarding officer ID would be exempt under Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act as the release of such information would breach the Data Protection Act.

Secondly, no NSL Enforcement Officer receives any kind of bonus or incentive linked to the number of PCNs issued.

The software system we use is provided by SPUR and is called Si-Dem. All the details recorded are those that are entered onto the PCN which is in accordance with the TMA 2004. Apart from the DVLA vehicle keeper details I do not know what other data sets it links with.

If you feel that you are not satisfied with the answer then you can complain further to one of the normal officers at stage 4 of the Bury Council procedure for dealing with Freedom of Information requests (www.bury.gov.uk).

Yours faithfully
John Foudy
Parking Services Manager

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From: Neil

13 September 2009

John,

I'm familiar with SPUR, you may want to pass this on the
appropriate IT personnel. Feel free to provide the data without the
CEO number.

IT:
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

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From: Foudy, John
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

6 October 2009

Dear Sir

I have noted your comments regarding your familiarity with the SPUR system. However it should be noted that in agreement with the Parking Enforcement Contract, NSL Ltd are the actual owners of the Si-Dem Notice Processing system and I have included them into my reply.

There also seems to be some mis-understanding on the data that you have requested. It is not the size of the files or in which format you would rather receive them that is the problem. It is actually the amount of work that your request would include that would exceed the statutory limit in time and cost.

In short I cannot interrogate 5 years worth of PCNs (approximately 130,000 pcns) into the 7 catogories (excluding CEO id)you have requested without exceeding £450 or 2.5 days

If you are not satisfied with this answer then you can complain further to one of the normal officers at stage 4 of the Bury Council procedure for dealing with Freedom of Information requests (www.bury.gov.uk).

Yours faithfully
John Foudy
Parking Services Manager

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watchingyou left an annotation (30 January 2010)

Section 16 of the FoI Act states the council have Duty to provide advice and assistance to help you obtain the requested information, if they do not you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

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Norris left an annotation (26 April 2010)

The council says "no NSL Enforcement Officer receives any kind of bonus or incentive linked to the number of PCNs issued". I don't beleive this for a second!

NSL Services Ltd operates the parking enforcement contract for Westminster Council in London and http://nutsville.com has proof that the traffic wardens are given targets.

Basically, if the parking wardens (civil enforcement officers) want overtime (which most do as they get paid at a higher rate) then they must issue a set amount of parking tickets. Any parking warden who doesn't issue enough parking tickets will face disciplinary action. I'm sure this is the way NSL Services operates nationally and not just in the City of Westminster.

See the archived posts on http://nutsville.com for more about this.

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