Greenwich’s Labour council has confirmed plans to privatise the borough’s traffic wardens to cope with possible growth in parking zones across the borough.
Outsourcing parking enforcement would run contradict promises from Sir Keir Starmer’s government, made as recently as last month, to bring public services in-house, instead of contracting them out to private businesses.
A document published on the council website on Thursday confirms that Greenwich could still extend the area covered by controlled parking zones, despite withdrawing most of its “sustainable streets” schemes before Christmas.
A private provider would be better at coping with such huge potential growth, the council says. While the Sustainable Streets scheme did not cover the south of the borough, covering all of Greenwich is part of its transport strategy and carbon-neutral plan.
The scope of the service would also be increased to include car pound facilities, mobile enforcement vehicles – as seen in Bexley – and CCTV room facilities.
Greenwich would follow its Conservative neighbours Bexley and Bromley in privatising its parking enforcement services if it goes ahead with the plan.
Outsourced wardens in Bromley working for Apcoa recently went on strike for ten days in a protest over “poverty pay” beneath London Living Wage, before reaching a deal last month.
The German company, which runs parking services in Bromley and Bexley under a joint contract, could be in pole position for a contract. “We will look to secure an established external contractor with a significant footprint and locally available staff in the area,” it says. “This will enable the service to scale up when required and meet absence challenges such as sickness volumes.”
Rather than a final decision being made by leader Anthony Okereke or his cabinet, the final decision on whether to proceed with procurement would be made by Mirsad Bakalovic, the senior council officer in charge of communities and environment.
Nationally, Labour has repeatedly pledged to oversee “the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation”, as recently as last month. In 2022, Angela Rayner, then the deputy leader, told the party conference that Labour would end “the Tories’ procurement racket run at the expense of British taxpayers”.
The plans have been known about within the council for some months, and approval to proceed will come just ten weeks before Labour’s most difficult borough election for nearly 60 years.
Councillors – including the borough’s 47 Labour representatives – have until next Thursday to challenge the plans.
A five-year contract could be worth between £18 million and £22 million to the winning bidder, and the deal could be extended for a further four years after that.
Privatising the service would cost £1.3 million more than keeping it in-house – from £3.6 million to £4.9 million – but the council believes it would be covered by £2 million in extra income from increasing enforcement from 200 to 350 hours per weekday.
However, the figures given refer to this financial year, making it hard to judge how much the council would actually be paying, as any deal would be signed in the next financial year.
“An external contractor would be in a stronger position to enhance performance and deliver greater environmental and operational benefits,” a report on the council website
“The contract will include delivery of brand-new equipment and innovative solutions as part of the service enabling improved technologies to be utilised with subsequent efficiency gains.”
Existing staff would be transferred to the new provider, although their contracts would be protected under employment law.
“An independent review has advised that utilising an external contractor to deliver the civil parking enforcement function would provide a sustainable, long-term solution to current operational challenges. It is expected to improve compliance, enhance service delivery, and offer better value for money,” the report says.
“An external contractor will enable further staff to be recruited to cover an increased span of hours including evening and weekends to ensure enforcement activities are prioritised to deliver greater compliance in busy areas.
“An established external contractor will receive much better rates from third party suppliers due to improved terms from consolidated services nationwide. This could provide significant savings on future equipment purchases, ie, handheld devices, mopeds, removal lorries, etc.
The proposal to outsource delivers value for money by ensuring the service is modern and fit for purpose.”
The three unions representing the borough’s parking staff – Unison, the GMB and Unite – have been contacted for comment. Unison said it was unable to comment at the time of publication.
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