HEREFORDSHIRE Council waived its own contract rules to approve the £31,000 purchase of new equipment for its parking enforcement officers.

Signed off by a senior officer, the approval means “unreliable and very problematic” handheld devices and printers docking stations used in the issuing of penalty notices can be replaced.

The council acknowledges the approval as an exemption from its own contract procedure rules, with the new equipment being provided by the council’s current supplier – a company called Chipside.

Penalty charge notices issued on-street and off-street are worth around £460,000 a year to the council.

Against this, the total contract value for the replacement is £31,000 to be funded through the council’s 2014/15 capital programme.

Making a case for waiving its own contractual rules, the council says going direct to Chipside is based on an identified need for increased efficiency, on the “assumption” that the original  procurement of Chipside as software provider complied with correct procurement process.

The council also cites a “need” to protect the income it receives from parking enforcement and minimise any loss due to faulty equipment.

Chipside currently provide the council’s parking enforcement software which the handheld devices use and related technical support.

The council pays Chipside £3,000 a year to provide the software and back office support  with either party able to withdraw from the agreement providing minimum notice is provided.

There is no option to lease equipment and the cost of repairing an individual  device is said to be higher than the buying of a new one from Chipside.

The council is also concerned about “conflict” if a different supplier provided the hardware with it being “easier and time efficient” to deal with one contact.

Approval for the procurement was signed off behind the scenes in November.

The Hereford Times understands that a case for a competitive process was made at senior management level to secure quotes from providers to be compliant with the council’s contract procedure rules.

It was during these discussions that the need for a single supplier was stressed.

If  hardware was purchased by one company and software from another, it was felt that it might become difficult to know which company was at fault in the event of problems.

Civil enforcement officers (CEOs) issuing parking penalty notices across the county have been working with equipment acknowledged as unreliable, very problematic, and often needing to be exchanged over a working day.

Amongst the problems faced by the CEOs are:

- Difficulty uploading information at the end of the day due to worn connections between the handhelds and docking stations, resulting in difficulty in making a connection to the server.

In one case the handheld was sent off for repair and, as the notices were not available on the system, they were all cancelled.

- Handhelds “crashing” so a CEO has to return to base for an exchange and, in doing so, losing all of their recorded observations such as vehicles parked in limited waiting areas.

- LCD screens that are scratched and difficult to read and keypad buttons that are worn and tend to stick.

- Printer cases that are “obsolete”. Printers used to print off notices are placed into  cases which attach to the CEO’s utility belt.

With the council unable to purchase any replacement cases, Chipside offered some old cases free of charge.

There are 16 CEO’s who have their own individual handheld device paired up to a printer.

The council wants to order 20 handheld devices and 20 printers to allow for spares.

These new devices will incorporate a cameras so CEOs can take photographs after issuing a notice.

When the CEOs upload information at the end of the day the photographs will be allocated to the associated notice.

CEOs have had to use separate cameras to take such pictures and then download them separately for “batching” by a support team.