Issue - decisions

1.          Recommendations

1.1        That Part B of this report be confidential pursuant to paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 because it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of tenderers for the contract which is the subject of this report.

1.2    That the Cabinet Member for Environment and City Management approves the recommendation to award the Parking People & Resources Contract for the provision of parking marshal services, issuing of PCNs, on street parking suspensions services, management, uniforms and stationery for the period from 1 May 2022 to 31 March 2023 to NSL Limited. The full contract term is 11 months at an estimated total contract cost of £6.471m (variable marshal hours affecting final value).

1.3    That the Cabinet Member for Environment and City Management approves the Waiver of the Procurement Code to allow a direct award to NSL Limited.

2.        Reasons for Decision 

2.1      The COVID 19 crisis has played a major impact on service delivery, with the Council’s initial response being to focus on critical and essential services. As a result, staff were diverted to deal with urgent and business critical matters. Furthermore, a number of companies had to make their employees furloughed as they tackled the economic impact of the pandemic upon their businesses. As a result, issuing re-procurements at this time may have limited supplier participation. Uncertainty brought about by the COVID 19 crisis, most notably the changes to amount of journeys into Westminster, also meant that The Council spent additional time assessing what the future requirements of parking contracts in Westminster would need to be and how this would impact on service specifications and models.

2.2       Following on from the strategy to remove the Technology element from the Business Processing and Technology Contract, this direct award will allow time for the implementation of the Parking Technology Systems Software Solution Contract to be awarded. The Council want to be able to provide details of the software solution that underpins both the Business Processing Parking Services Contract and the People and Resources Contract to suppliers for these contracts that will commence in 2023.

2.3       The design of the future operating model for Parking Services has now been finalised and the project team are now at the latter stages of developing the tender strategy. This is pending internal governance approval with the re-procurement of relevant services to be issued shortly there afterwards. New re-procured contracts are planned to commence from 1 April 2023, and it is necessary to have continuity of these services in the interim until 1 April 2023.