Costs of One Barnet outsourcing : parking

The One Barnet outsourcing is meant to save money.

The parking contract with NSL is a One Barnet contract.

It is meant to save £600,000 a year.

Some of that has been lost because of the way in which the staff were dealt with when NSL took over (NSL are innocent in this matter apart from their business decision to manage the Barnet back office from Croydon). The story is in the local paper, the Barnet Times. That expensive town hall tax dodging interim HR expert doesn't seem to have been worth the money they were paid.

The amount at issue which the council will have to pay out is in the region of £200,000 so that is 4 months out of the 60 the contract is scheduled for which won't show a saving.

There are more failings which Mr Mustard will tell you about soon.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Exposition, or, I wanna tell you a story

Below are the independent adjudicators comments following an appeal to PATAS for the heinous crime of being inside a CPZ zone on a single yellow line in Hoop Lane (many of whose motorists go to appeal)

Although I am prepared to accept on the basis of the Council's site photograph that the vehicle was parked on a single yellow line there is no evidence of the presence of the required timeplate or CPZ signage. The Council might have been better advised to provide a plan of the Zone and evidence of the presence of signage at its entry points rather than devoting large parts of its case summary to a general exposition of the law relating to restricted streets. I am not satisfied the Council has proved the restriction relied on was clearly and correctly indicated and it follows that the Appeal must be allowed.

For those that don't know, and Mr Mustard had to check as English is a tricky language, an exposition is:

a systematic interpretation or explanation (usually written) of a specific topic

Whatever it is or isn't the independent adjudicator wasn't impressed. He would, it seems, have preferred some facts and so he cancelled the parking ticket as the case wasn't proved.

One thing is true is that fings ain't what they used to be in parking since NSL took over. 

Weren't NSL meant to be experts at this parking enforcement malarkey? their actions don't suggest that. As One Barnet contracts go this ain't a good un.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard