Parking fines at Sand Street car park (FOI)

Request

A

Was the possibility of allowing a (say 20 minute) grace period for motorists, once alerted, to exit the car park and return to make payment considered?

B

How many non-payment on exit 'excess charges' per year have been made since installation?

Response

A

This was considered in 2012 when the system went live but as previously explained there is no room for a vehicle exiting to park up without causing a blockage in the car park, hence this was quickly discounted. Advice signs have been in place at every pedestrian entrance / exit on each floor since the system went live and there are general reminder signs facing the driving line of sight of the lower three floors advising drivers of the need to pay on their return.

B

The total number of Excess Charge Notices issued for offence code 201 – Removing a vehicle from the car park without the correct parking charge first being paid, is set out in the table below and detailed by year.

Offence code 201 includes a number of different scenarios; as follows:

• using a disabled badge without a Disabled ParkSmart Card

• using paycards 

• not checking a payment has been completed correctly

• paying for an incorrect registration number

• driving out without remembering to make a payment

We estimate that it will take us in excess of 12.5 working hours to determine the number of Excess Charge Notices issued solely due to individuals leaving the car park because they forgot to pay. This part of your request will therefore not be processed any further.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

We are however able to advise that the majority of Excess Charge Notices that have been cancelled are related to instances where a payment has been made for an incorrect registration number which has been subsequently identified, and also for first time disabled badge holders who did not understand the system requirements. A small number have been cancelled due to other unspecified reasons.

You will see that there were a high number of cancellations in 2013, which is just after the system went live. This is because we introduced a policy of education during the early stages of the system going live, rather than upholding the Excess Charge – it was considered more important to explain the system to users and build public confidence with using it for a reasonable period of time.

Article applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.