Purpose

This report seeks
approval to extend the Council’s contract with Marston
(Holdings) Limited to deliver civil parking and traffic enforcement
in the borough (the Contract). The contract directly contributed to
generating £20.8 million in income for the financial year
24/25 and also supported the securing of an additional £28.2
million in revenue from short-term parking, permits and bay
suspensions during the same period.
 
The Executive
Director Corporate Services approved the award on 29th January
2020. The published decision report can be found HERE
 
The contract
commenced on October 1st, 2020, for an initial period of 6 years
and is due to end on September 30th, 2026. The current contract
allows for two separate extensions of two years each. To ensure
continuity through to October 2030 and to streamline future
governance processes, the service intends to implement a contract
variation that would enable these two extension periods to be
combined into a single four-year term.
 
Over the six years
since the contract was executed, the Service Provider has
experienced substantial increases in operational costs. In order to
maintain the commercial viability of the agreement, the Service
Provider has proposed an adjustment to the current schedule of
rates. Based on current levels of enforcement activity, the
expected cost of the 4 year extension period is £41.4
million.
 
It is also
proposed to vary the contract to increase the overall existing
deployed hours by an estimated 545 hours per week, and increase the
deployment of associated enforcement vehicles / video safety
equipment by a combined 127 units per week, at an additional
average cost of £1.43M per annum. This variation will take
effect in December 2025. This variation is proposed due to an
expanding volume of policy driven parking restrictions in the
borough which require additional enforcement hours to ensure the
highway is effectively managed in relation to civil parking
enforcement.
 
The variation will
also support the Council in transitioning to a predominantly
remote-review delivery of CCTV enforcement, and to provide
resilience to the existing operation through rationalisation of the
existing in-borough deployed hours.
 
In accordance with
Contract Standing Orders (CSOs), the Executive Director Investment,
Place and Opportunity must agree the extension to the Contract (CSO
E1.4). In order to vary the Contract a waiver of CSO C3.1
(obligation to carry out a competitive tendering process) is
required. Given the value of the proposed variation, following
agreement of the Executive Director Investment Place and
Opportunity, this must be approved by the Executive Director
Corporate Services with additional agreement from Cabinet. A
separate report will be submitted to Cabinet.

Content

The Executive
Director Investment, Place and Opportunity agreed:-
 

(i) a
variation to amend the terms of the Contract for civil parking and
traffic enforcement in the borough, allowing the two available
extension periods to be combined into a single four-year
extension;
 

(ii) an
extension of the Contract under the revised terms for a period of
four years, with an expiry date of 30 September 2030;
 

(iii) a
variation to the Contract to allow for adjustments to the schedule
of rates (SoR) as set out in section 2 of the report;
 

(iv) agrees
a variation to the Contract to increase the existing deployed hours
from December 2025 as set out in section 2 of the report
 

(v) to
grant a waiver of Contract Standing Order C3.1 in order to vary the
Contract, subject to approval of the Executive Director Corporate
Services and Cabinet as required under Contract Standing Order E2.2
and in line with Contract Standing Order F3.4.

 
The Interim
Executive Director Corporate Services (Kathryn Myers) agreed a
waiver to vary the contract with Marstons further to
Recommendations 3, 4 and 5 subject to additional agreement by
Cabinet.