Reading council is set to join forces with Oxford to punish parking rule breaches as its current enforcement contractor wants to pull out.
Parking rule breaches, such as overstaying tickets and illegal parking are currently enforced by contract staff from the company Trellint.
These parking wardens roam the car parks and streets in Reading using scanning machines to issue rule breakers with penalty charge notice (PCN) fines.
The council made net surpluses of £2,041,728 from car parks, £2,312,187 from pay and display tickets and £321 from PCNs in 2023/24.
However, there has been enforcement difficulties in Reading as wardens have gone on strike on three occasions over pay in negotiations with the multi-national company Modaxo, which owns Trellint.
The strikes in October, January and February were conducted by unionised parking wardens with the support of Unite.
While Trellint’s contract with Reading council runs until October 2027, the company has indicated that it is exiting the parking enforcement market.
Now, the council is set to join forces with Oxfordshire County Council to find a new enforcement contractor.
The decision to procure a contractor with Oxfordshire was discussed at a Reading council policy committee meeting.
Phil Grant, the council’s parking services manager said: “Trellint are keen to exit and are looking to terminate the contract at the earliest opportunity.”
Acknowledging the strikes John Ennis (Labour, Southcote), lead councillor for transport, said: “There were some HR issues which have been settled, and therefore this is an opportunity now for us to commission a decent service along with colleagues in Oxford, and we can work together to get the best deal possible, and get a full team of enforcement officers and keeping Reading’s streets moving, so I very much welcome this.”
Rob White (Green, Park), leader of the main opposition party, said: “This contract has been hampered by strike action from the traffic wardens, accusations of low pay, which hasn’t been the finest hour of the council’s contract, I would say, so I’m personally glad to see the back of it.”
He then questioned whether the enforcement could be conducted by the council’s own staff.
Cllr Ennis replied: “We are one of the best in-house councils in the country, we definitely have looked at it in previous times, but we have to be frank with the budget situation, we can’t tick our council into a Section 114 situation.”
He then explained that the council is financially unable to fund such enforcement work.
A section 114 notice is issued by a council’s financial officer to declare that it cannot meet its spending obligations.
The policy committee unanimously agreed to procure a parking enforcement contractor with Oxfordshire County Council on September 17.
The county council covers Oxford, Henley, Banbury and Bicester.
