Council controlled car parks have generated £130,000 less than expected over the past year, prompting Fermanagh and Omagh District Council to voice “grave concerns” about the shortfall.

For the second time in five months, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) has witnessed a deficit in its local off-street car parking figures.
The Council is particularly concerned by the fact that parking fines are not generating enough money.

Car park income is spent on local Council services.

Control of off-street car parking moved from central government to local councils in April 2015 but FODC has a service level agreement with TransportNI up to October 2016. This agreement means that TransportNI employs NSL (the Red Coats) to carry out many of the monitoring and enforcement tasks associated with the management of off-street car parking.

TransportNI are currently negotiating with NSL on the extension of the contract for another three years.
Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is concerned because income for local Councils estimated by Transport NI is falling “far below” what they had projected.

Statistics show that in the financial year from April 2015-March 2016 the 13 Council controlled car parks in this district generated a total income of £940,037; 12 per cent less than the expected total of £1.1 million.

Car parking fees generated four per cent less than expected but the big loss came from penalty charge notices (parking tickets), which made 34 per cent less than expected. In that year, the Council had been expected to make £276,000 from parking tickets but only generated £147,197.
October 2015 saw the highest amount of money received from parking tickets locally: £15,359.30

A report to July’s Environmental Services Committee meeting stated: “The Council was provided with the historical income and expenditure figures for the previous years. The figures were based on the standard charging rates and did not take account of the pilot scheme of £1 for 5 hours introduced by the Minister. There are a few car parks with lower tariffs but the majority are on the £1 for 5 hours tariff. Out of the 39 car parks transferred to the Council 13 of them are pay and display and the rest are free.

“There is ongoing liaison with TransportNI with a view to establishing the reasons for the significant difference between actual and projected income.
“TransportNI recently reported back to the Council’s Working Group that they were close to finalising a paper on the future management of Off-Street Car Parks and that this will be presented to the Council in the coming months for consideration.”