The Back Office Award: Durham County Council and NSL

British Parking Awards 2024

Durham County Council and its parking services contractor NSL have worked together for over 24 years – the Marston Holdings company has successfully retained its contract multiple times.

The longevity of the relationship has seen the council and NSL build up a partnership approach to providing parking services. Durham is primarily responsible for the management of: civil parking enforcement; bus lane enforcement; moving traffic enforcement; controlled parking zones and controlled parking areas; the Durham City Road User Charge; park & ride; and Blue Badge enforcement

NSL is responsible for: employment and deployment of civil enforcement officers (CEOs); dealing with back office first line challenges and issuing permits to residents. It also operates Durham’s park & ride site, has a contract to supply nighttime security, and the cleaning of the Sands multi-storey car park.

The council’s lead officer works closely with NSL’s client account manager and enforcement manager to ensure the operation achieves set targets. Peter Broxton, Durham’s parking and transport infrastructure team leader, says: “We hold regular formal monthly meetings as well as day-to-day catch ups and problem solving. Durham holds internal regular one-to-ones and team meetings to review development opportunities, positive change, areas of concern and mentoring, performance development reviews, highlighting areas of training and support required.”

Scott Wallace, NSL client account manager, says: “The parking supervisor runs workshops for new starters and refresher training, including Traffic Regulation Orders, road markings, TSRGD and Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The workshops look at previous case studies and have team discussions over the evidence and information required, and whether we think the appeal was allowed or dismissed.”

All new administration officers and representations officers receive on-site training from the supervisor within the city centre to give a visual overview of the parking service. This includes a walk around of car parks, CPZs, congestion charge zone, bus station, and the park & ride service. They also job shadow CEOs and visit the Parking Shop to gain a full understanding of how the council and NSL all fit together as one team.

“One of our objectives is to improve road safety and the local environment by educating drivers about the implications of their actions,” says Broxton. “The purpose of a penalty charge is to dissuade motorists from contravening restrictions, not to raise revenue. In some circumstances, we choose to cancel PCNs upon receipt of a challenge, despite a contravention occurring. For example, when we receive a challenge from a Blue Badge holder who has made a genuine error when using the badge we cancel the notice on the first occasion and explain how the badge should be displayed in future. Equally, if someone had forgotten to display a pay-and-display ticket that they purchased, or incorrectly validated a visitor permit, then we cancel on the first occasion following proof received. In 2023/24 we cancelled 1,794 PCNs for the reasons outlined above.

“We operate in accordance with County Durham Parking Policies, which is available for the public to view on our website. We are consistent with our approach and in accordance with these policies. With regards to TPT appeals, only 5% of appeals to DCC were allowed in 2023/24. This is highlighting that we are making the correct decisions. We share all decisions with NSL so that they are aware of the full PCN process from start to finish.

“Where possible, our CEOs will take an educational approach and move drivers on from a restriction before commencing the PCN issue process. Where new restrictions are introduced, we operate a two-week warning period prior to issuing live notices. Where a large-scale restriction is introduced, this is also highlighted on social media channels so we can get the message across to as many customers as possible.”

Durham has launched ParkSmarti, a virtual permit system from Imperial which enables residents to apply and manage their permits through an online platform. It is hoped ParkSmarti will help reduce Durham’s carbon footprint, reduce misuse and improve enforcement. Scott Wallace, NSL client account manager, says: “We are working closely with local councillors and residents to ensure that the system we implement will be user friendly and suitable for all demographics. We organised a demonstration event for councillors and residents to obtain feedback and make the appropriate changes before the scheme roll-out.”

Durham and NSL have also adopted ChallengeSmarti, which is a cloud-based, self-service system from Imperial that enables drivers to make informed decisions regarding their PCN challenges.

“Basically, ChallengeSmarti allows the motorist to input some details and find out, before they make a challenge, what the outcome of their challenge is likely to be based upon Durham Council’s policies,” says Scott Wallace. “It also prompts the user to upload the correct supporting documentation. This has enhanced the customer experience and allowed their appeals to be dealt with in a more timely manner. It also improves the back office processing times and makes us a more efficient service.”

Winner’s words

Peter Broxton (Durham County Council): “We’ve won this award because of the work and effort of every single member of my team. That goes for the contract that we have with NSL, all the way down to the individual people who log in and take the calls. We couldn’t have done this without every single member of staff.”

The British Parking Awards

Created and presented by Parking Review magazine, the British Parking Awards are an independent competition. The awards recognise the leading examples of car park management, enforcement, design and team work.

The British Parking Awards 2024 ceremony took place at the Royal Lancaster London on 13 September.

Read and download the 2025 WINNERS EDITION of PARKING REVIEW by clicking HERE

To find out more about the competition and next year’s event check out the official website.
www.britishparkingawards.uk