Verbal Update.
Minutes:
The Panel received a verbal briefing in relation to the Parking Management IT System. This update was a follow-up to a previous update given to the Panel on 3rd March 2022 and the update was given by Mark Stevens, AD Direct Services. The following key points were noted:
a. The IT system was quite complex, with 27 modules and it was also linked in with 16 other Council systems in order to provide the services required.
b. Since the system went live, one year ago, the following number of permits had been issued:
· 55k permit accounts had been created
· 36k virtual parking permits had been issued
· 10k other parking permits issued
· 375k visitor permits, with additional paper visitor permits were issued
· 1.2m pay-by-phone permits had been issued through Ring Go
c. Officers acknowledged that there had also been problems reported with the system and that they had been working with colleagues in Customer Services to look at the issues and make improvements.
d. Real improvements had been made in terms of the amount of time people were spending waiting on the phone to order parking permits. External mystery shopping had been undertaken and parking permits had come out on top in terms of the scores for services offered by customer services.
e. Issuing of virtual permits had resulted in a decrease of Blue Badge theft by 65% in a year.
f. Officers advised that the were undertaking a revision to the permit module in November, through Taranto, to tie it in with government design standards and significant improvements to the system were anticipated.
The following arose during the discussion of this item:
a. The Chair passed on concerns from a resident about virtual permits and the fact that the person in question couldn’t always get access to the virtual permits section of the IT system. The Chair noted that the resident was unaware that you could still receive paper copies of parking permits and concerns were put forward about the ability of some older residents to access online permits. The Chair sought clarification as to whether the Council’s intention was to phase out physical permits altogether. In response, officers advised that they were seeking to channel shift residents to virtual permits as much as possible, but that they would retain paper permits for those that could not use the online permit system, for whatever reason. Officers commented that they were looking to make it easier to access virtual permits through upcoming revision in November.
b. The Panel noted concerns about Blue Badge theft and queried why the photograph was located on the reverse of the permit, as if it was on the front other people couldn’t use the stolen badge. In response, officers advised that the actual badges were designed and issued by the Department for Transport and that the local authority had no say in their design. Officers set out that the reason for introducing virtual permits was that the user no longer had to display their Blue Badge. In response to a follow-up, officers acknowdged that the virtual permits could only be used ‘on-street’ and that the physical badge was needed when parking in a supermarket.
c. The Panel raised concerns about the auto-validation process and questioned why when checking addresses, the system did not link up to other systems Council such as Council Tax. In response, officers advised that the auto-validation process should link up with data held on the electoral register and that this did happen in most cases. Nevertheless, officers recognised that there had been some glitches with this process and that it was hoped that these would be ironed out by the module update.
d. The Panel also relayed some other glitches with the system, including the fact that it was not compatible with some web browsers; past purchases were not visible; why couldn’t people purchase more than 9 permits in one go; and why could the permits not be issued for two hour slots to accord with parking restrictions in certain locations. In response, officers acknowledged these issues and advise that they were working to rectify them through the update.
RESOLVED
The update was noted.