Cost of operating the Parking Permit Office at County Hall
Dear Northumberland County Council,
Can you please furnish me with a breakdown of the annual operating costs of the Department which handles the issue of residents parking permits in the old Castle Morpeth Borough.
This broken down by year with staffing levels since inception would be most helpful
Yours faithfully,
Bob Robertson
Dear Mr Wilson
Thank you for your request for information
regarding correspondence related to land and buildings at the special
expenses scheme for parish councils Your request was received on
27 October and is being dealt 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 the likely charges before proceeding.
If you have any queries about this matter please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communication.
Regards
John Harrison
Complaints and Freedom of Information Officer
Legal Services
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
01670 534025
[1][email address]
Northumberland made the following annotations
References
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Dear Freedom Of Information, John Harrison,
Please amend your record for the sake of avoiding future confusion.
My name is Robertson not Wilson (see your acknowledgement).
Yours sincerely,
Bob Robertson
Dear Mr Robertson
For clarification regarding your request, is it the the Residents Parking
Scheme that you require information on or the Shoppers Scheme (formerly
known as the free residents parking scheme)?
The service that deals with the issuing of all parking permit schemes also
deals with with a range of other duties including the responsibility for
the administration of enforcement of all of the off-street car parks
across the county of Northumberland. Therefore the operating costs that
we can give you will include all of those other services that we provide
and the staff within the team cover the full range of duties across the
whole service.
We will be able to provide figures from April 2009 as the 6 former
district councils and the county council became unitary on this date and
depending on the detail of what you require I may need to pass your
request to our finance department.
Regards
Parking Services
Parking Services
Strategic Transportation
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Tel: 0845 600 6400
Fax: 01670 534774
Website: [1]www.northumberland.gov.uk
Northumberland made the following annotations
References
Visible links
1. https://webmail.northumberland.gov.uk/ow...
Dear Parking Services CRM,
Hi,
On the basis that the "Shoppers Scheme" does not come into force until 1st April 2011 (please correct me if this is not the case), my interest is primarily with the operating cost of the "Residents Parking Scheme", which can hardly be described as having been free, as it was paid for and only available to the Council Tax Payers of the old CMBC area.
Information about the operating costs and staffing levels of the relevant NCC department would be appreciated as it can be annualised.
What is also required is some indication of the staffing levels and operating cost of the corresponding department in the old CMBC since the inception of parking charges in the town.
Any information or direction to possible source for this information will be appreciated.
Regards,
Bob Robertson.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Robertson
Dear Parking Services CRM,
Hi,
On the basis that the "Shoppers Scheme" does not come into force
until 1st April 2011 (please correct me if this is not the case),
my interest is primarily with the operating cost of the "Residents
Parking Scheme", which can hardly be described as having been free,
as it was paid for and only available to the Council Tax Payers of
the old CMBC area.
Information about the operating costs and staffing levels of the
relevant NCC department would be appreciated as it can be
annualised.
What is also required is some indication of the staffing levels and
operating cost of the corresponding department in the old CMBC
since the inception of parking charges in the town.
Any information or direction to possible source for this
information will be appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Robertson
Dear Mr Robertson
For clarity, there are a number of permit schemes that we operate and it
would seem from your email that you are confusing some of those schemes.
• The Shoppers permit scheme is currently in operation in Morpeth now
(this was formerly known in Morpeth as a Residents Parking Permit
Scheme). This scheme is a free scheme however the proposal in the
parking strategy consultation is to roll out a countywide Shoppers
permit scheme (with a £15 admin fee) however the existing Morpeth only
scheme will end on 31 March 2011. The scheme allows the permit holder
to park within restricted times for free in off-street car parks.
• There are a range of Resident Parking Schemes in place across the
County. These schemes were operated by the former County Council and
as such CMBC did not administer this scheme in their C Tax area the
County Council did. This scheme has a charge of £15 per permit.
These permits are issued to residents where a scheme has been
implemented in specific residential streets. These permits do not
allow parking in off-street car parks and can only be used in the
designated zone.
If you are still uncertain about the schemes that you require the
financial information for please give us a call. Otherwise we will be
forwarding your request to our financial services department as they will
need to provide the financial information. Therefore we will ask them to
provide you with the full Parking Services budget information from 1 April
2009. Please note, Parking Services took responsibility for the Resident
Parking Schemes on 1 April 2010 and prior to this the County Councils
Democratic Services department had responsibility for the issue of these
permits. If you require the budget information for when Democratic
Services administered these schemes please let us know and we will provide
that too. Again, please give us a call to clarify any issues.
Regards
Parking Services
Parking Services
Strategic Transportation
Northumberland County Council
Direct Line: 0845 600 6400
Fax: 01670 534774
Website: www.northumberland.gov.uk
Dear Parking Services CRM,
Thanks for the response.
For the sake of clarity and to remove any confusion I may have created.
What I am referring to and am requesting information on, are the costs associated with administering the "Residents Parking Permit Scheme, the FREE one (apparently now replaced by the "Shoppers Permit Scheme"?), I was not aware that you had in fact initiated this latter scheme or that you were in fact operating it?
Yes I would appreciate the financial information that you propose, from April 1st 2009 to the present time (or as near as you can get).
In addition it would be most helpful if you would be kind enough (as you suggest),to provide the information generated by the Councils Democratic Services Department for the earlier periods (in effect from inception up to the point of hand over to NCC).
Please also indicate where I might find details of the current "Shoppers Permit Scheme", its date of implementation and clarify in what if any way it currently differs from the now presumably closed "Residents Parking Permit Scheme".
And yes I probably will give you a call to clear up any remaining minor confusion that may exist.
Regards,
Bob Robertson
Dear Mr Robertson
We have requested the financial information you require from our finance department and will respond to you as soon as we receive it from them.
Regards
Parking Services
Strategic Transportation
Northumberland County Council
Tel: 0845 600 6400
Fax: 01670 534774
Website: www.northumberland.gov.uk
________________________________________
From: Bob Robertson [[FOI #50233 email]]
Sent: 27 November 2010 23:48
To: Parking Services CRM
Subject: RE: FOI request re parking permit operating costs (FOI EF50415E)
Dear Parking Services CRM,
Thanks for the response.
For the sake of clarity and to remove any confusion I may have
created.
What I am referring to and am requesting information on, are the
costs associated with administering the "Residents Parking Permit
Scheme, the FREE one (apparently now replaced by the "Shoppers
Permit Scheme"?), I was not aware that you had in fact initiated
this latter scheme or that you were in fact operating it?
Yes I would appreciate the financial information that you propose,
from April 1st 2009 to the present time (or as near as you can
get).
In addition it would be most helpful if you would be kind enough
(as you suggest),to provide the information generated by the
Councils Democratic Services Department for the earlier periods (in
effect from inception up to the point of hand over to NCC).
Please also indicate where I might find details of the current
"Shoppers Permit Scheme", its date of implementation and clarify in
what if any way it currently differs from the now presumably closed
"Residents Parking Permit Scheme".
And yes I probably will give you a call to clear up any remaining
minor confusion that may exist.
Regards,
Bob Robertson
Bob
In response to your request;-
What I am referring to and am requesting information on, are the costs
associated with administering the "Residents Parking Permit Scheme, the
FREE one (apparently now replaced by the "Shoppers Permit Scheme"?), I was
not aware that you had in fact initiated this latter scheme or that you
were in fact operating it? The scheme was simply ‘carried over’ from the
former Castle Morpeth Borough Council and the only thing that has changed
is the name (as mentioned in our earlier emails to you). Please see
attached excel spreadsheet “Detail Report 08 09”
Yes I would appreciate the financial information that you propose, from
April 1st 2009 to the present time (or as near as you can get). Please
see attached excel spreadsheets “2009 10 Car parking administration
budget” and “2010 11 Car parking administration budget”.
In addition it would be most helpful if you would be kind enough (as you
suggest),to provide the information generated by the Councils Democratic
Services Department for the earlier periods (in effect from inception up
to the point of hand over to NCC). Please see attached excel spreadsheet
“2009 10 Support Services Democratic Services”
Please also indicate where I might find details of the current "Shoppers
Permit Scheme", its date of implementation and clarify in what if any way
it currently differs from the now presumably closed "Residents Parking
Permit Scheme".
Please visit our Webiste at [1]www.northumberland.gov.uk/parking and
select ‘Shoppers Permit (Morpeth). Unfortunately I am not certain of the
implementation date of the scheme as it was running for a number of years
through the former CMBC. The only thing that has changed since NCC took
the scheme on was the change of name (as already mentioned above)
Please Note: As stated in our earlier emails, the information contained
within the attached spreadsheets also includes costs for other areas of
work that the service undertakes as budgets are not refined down to each
specific area of work.
Regards
Lynne
Lynne Ryan
Parking Manager
Strategic Transportation
Northumberland County Council
Tel: 01670 533995
Fax: 01670 534774
Attn Lynne Ryan
Parking Manager
ST NCC
Dear Lynne
Thank you for the financial information, its fine for my needs.
The only thing remaining is an indication of the staffing levels across the same period (see my original request), can you furnish me with those or direct me to the body who can?
(And yes its appreciated that the people involved will not be dedicated solely to the Morpeth activity :0) )
Your prompt and thoughtful assistance is appreciated.
Best regards,
Bob
Bob Robertson
Dear Mr Robertson
Unfortunately Lynne Ryan is now on leave until Wednesday 29th December 2010. Therefore the outstanding query will be dealt with on her return.
Kind Regards
Parking Services
Highways & Neighbourhood Services
Local Services Group
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
NE61 2EF
Tel: 0845 600 6400
Fax: (01670) 534774
Email: [email address]
Website: www.northumberland.gov.uk
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