A Central London council has delayed a new pay-to-park surcharge by 12 months following issues finding a new provider, a report has shown. Westminster City Council said an 'end-user' fee will come into effect on October 1, 2025 - a year after it was originally meant to be implemented.
The charge, which will be capped at 30p per transaction, will be issued by a private parking provider. It will be in addition to the pay-to-park charge set by the council and will be visible in any cashless parking receipt.
The charge for optional SMS text reminders will not be listed as part of the hourly pay-to-park charge, however. Westminster City had planned to introduce the charge on October 1, 2024, to coincide with the end of its contract with RingGo, its current pay-to-park provider.
But plans to run a competitive procurement process to find a new provider had to be pushed back after the council realised implementing the new charge required a cabinet member's approval. That was not given until July last year via a special measure allowing the decision to bypass formal scrutiny processes.
The late decision forced the council to extend its contact with RingGo for another 12 months at a cost of £2.2m. A council report on the decision read: "The contract is only needed until the longer-term solution can be awarded and mobilised.
"It is expected that this will be for a period of around eight months. However, under GCloud framework rules a contract must be awarded for 12 months - though it can be ended early with three months' notice."
Westminster City has 9,800 paid-for parking spaces, many of which are paid for largely by mobile phone.
This service is currently provided by RingGo and through them approximately 6.9 million transactions are processed in Westminster City annually. Historically, the council has been charged per transaction to cover the cost of this service.
It now wants to charge users and is seeking a provider who can do this in a transparent way. According to the same council report, it has historically been very difficult for authorities to complete an open procurement exercise in the cashless pay-to-park market because bidders do not share a clear price for transaction fees.
This made it extremely difficult to award a final contract. Westminster City is looking to overcome this problem by capping fees to 30p per transaction.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands the level of charge, how often it is issued, if at all, will be up to the provider. It also understands the council wants to hire three providers, who will recover all their costs from a charge levied on customers.
The move is expected to save the council £1.2m a year. In 2023/24, the council generated £40m through pay-to-park transactions.
The report said: "Market engagement shows such inability to effectively complete a competitive procurement is common in this sector across most authorities but the challenge for the City Council is compounded by the fact that the Westminster Cashless Contract is the largest in Europe."
Got a story? Email adrian.zorzut@reachplc.com
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