News - NSL

The UK's largest employer of Civil Enforcement Officers has today welcomed the provisions of the Traffic Management Act, which comes into full force today.
The Act makes a number of welcome changes to the powers available to local authorities and extends much of the best practice developed by NCP Services in London and the larger UK cities, to the rest of the UK.

It acknowledges the evolving role of the Parking Attendant by changing their name to Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs).

It extends to the rest of the UK the power to enforce against illegal parking with CCTV cameras, already being used in parts of central London and also provides the legal framework for PAs to provide a wider range of enforcement in the communities they serve.

The Act makes provisions for the issuing of PCN's through the post when information has been gathered by CCTV, by a CEO or in the case of drive-aways and also extends the rules on dropped kerbs and double parking outside London.

Also included is the assumption that clamping should only be a sanction of last resort and comments in the guidance to the legislation stress the need for the industry to move away from contracts based upon the numbers of PCNs issued.

The Act also provides for a sliding scale of fines applicable with PCNs, a measure already introduced in much of London, but now extended to the rest of the UK for the first time.

Many of these measures have been developed in consultation with NCP Services, which employs nearly 4,000 CEOs on more than 50 on-street enforcement contracts in the UK. Key contracts include Westminster, Camden, Islington, Manchester, Edinburgh and Northern Ireland.

Welcoming the start of the new legislation, Alastair Cooper, NCP Services Operations Director said, “Today is the end of a long process of discussion, consultation and debate on the future of parking enforcement in our towns and cities.

“Organisations like NCP Services, working with our clients in local government have long argued for this more holistic approach to parking enforcement and we believe the Traffic Management  Act represents key improvements for the people charged with enforcing our parking regulations, who we will now al have to get used to calling CEOs.
“We all recognise that with 30million cars on the roads there is a pressing need for parking enforcement and there will always be a debate about how best to carry it out, however we are genuinely hopeful that the measures on contracts, clamping, training and general practice will help to move that debate forward.

“Ultimately we all want our towns and cities to be places where people can do business, shop, live and enjoy their leisure time in a way that is pleasant and safe. Parking enforcement can help to achieve that goal and this legislation helps to make it more achievable.”

For further details, images or broadcast comment contact, Tim Cowen, Director of Communications on: 07720 412 143