Introduction of Decriminalised Parking Enforcement in Northern Ireland

Keith Banbury, chief executive, of the BPA said: The BPA welcomes the introduction of DPE to Northern Ireland and sees this as a valuable and positive step for parking management across the country. The introduction of DPE allows for better traffic management practices to be adopted, resulting in improved traffic flows and enhanced efficiency in the use of on-street car parking.

We are equally encouraged that the Department for Regional Development has chosen to use the BPA model contract, which was developed with the support of the Department for Transport and a number of experienced parking professionals as a basis for carrying out parking enforcement using external contractors.

The model contract aims to standardise on-street parking enforcement, with the intention that authorities adopting it can help to create greater transparency and generate confidence in the on-street parking industry. It emphasises quality performance measurement and discourages financial targeting, preferring instead to focus on parking and traffic control.

Ultimately, by discouraging targets and incentives based on the number of tickets issued, the private parking enforcement industry will be seen as part of the parking solution and not the problem.

The model Contract

With the support of the Department for Transport, the BPA developed a model contract which aims to standardise on-street parking enforcement throughout the UK. The model contractfocuses on quality performance measurement; discourages financial targeting of contractors; encourages standard training; and emphasises parking enforcement for traffic management purposes.

The BPA hopes that as more local authorities consider DPE, and as old contracts are renewed or retendered, that all UK local authorities using private contractors will be using the model contract within 3-5 years or a derivation of it.