Recruitment drive for ten job vacancies to start
Ten Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) are to be recruited as soon as possible by St Albans City and District Council.
The CEOs – formerly known as traffic wardens – are being taken on by the Parking Services department following a reorganisation.
This follows a delay in recruitment to the vacancies, partly due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Some of the posts may be filled internally.
The CEOs will be put to work according to a deployment plan which will be monitored to see how effective it is.
Hotspots where compliance with parking regulations is poor will be identified through analysing the number of tickets issues and patrols stepped up.
Hertfordshire County Councillors as well as Parish and Town Councils will also be asked for their views as to how best the CEOs can operate.
In another development, work to carry out repairs to the Council’s car parks is also to be carried out.
The Council took back control of its car parks as well as its enforcement operation last year after having previously outsourced the services to private contractors.
A dilapidation surveyor’s report was commissioned by the Council following the handover to see if any repairs were required.
This has identified £1.6 million of essential work and talks with the former contractor about this outstanding issue will continue.
A detailed report on the costs is to be given to Cabinet by the end of the year with a view to completing the works by the end of 2021.
The measures were agreed by the Council’s Cabinet at its meeting on Thursday 17 September, having been recommended by the Parking Services Task and Finish Group.
Councillor Chris White, Leader and Portfolio Holder for Climate, Environment and Transport, said after the meeting:
The decision to take the running of our car parks and the on-street and off-street enforcement operation back in-house was a major step for the Council.
In the long run, the new arrangements will lead to substantial savings that we can spend on maintaining and improving services for the benefit of our residents.
However, the Covid-19 lockdown, which no one could have foreseen, reduced revenues as the use of car parks fell. We also operated a light-touch enforcement regime in both off-street car parks and in on-street parking zones with so many people working from home.
With some people now returning to work at offices, it seems the right time to fill the vacancies we have for Civil Enforcement Officers with a recruitment campaign.
We have also decided that their use must be more responsive to residents’ concerns with councillors and town and parish councils being asked to help identify where they are most needed.
We’re also looking to move ahead with some of the work needed to bring our car parks up to a satisfactory standard and we will have talks with the former contractors about their financial responsibilities in this regard.
Councillor contact: Councillor Chris White,
Leader and Portfolio Holder for Climate, Environment and Transport, Email: cllr.c.white@stalbans.gov.uk
Tel: 01727 845300.
Contact for the media: John McJannet,
Principal Communications Officer
Tel: 01727 819533
Email: john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.
Note to editors: In common with many district councils across the country, off-street car parking is a significant source of revenue, supporting local services which would otherwise need to be funded by council tax or not provided at all. On-street car parking, by contrast, cannot by law operate as a revenue source and the costs and revenues must balance each other out.