Car parks in crisis

CRUMBLING car parks in Oldham are in such a state they may have to close for safety reasons.

Oldham Council needs to find £250,000 to bring them up to scratch or income from parking fees will plummet because of closures.

The disrepair is revealed in a report to a council overview and scrutiny committee for its meeting tomorrow.

The committee is reviewing the management of parking facilities and has drawn up several recommendations.

The report says a backlog of work means £250,000 is needed to bring all the car parks up to an adequate standard, with £40,000 a year then needed to maintain them. The work has not been budgeted.

The report states: “The overall intake from parking and traffic control was expected to fall in the immediate future as several car parks were in such condition that they may have to be closed for safety reasons if improvements were not made.”

The report also reveals that a contract for the council’s parking services with Parking Plus has finally been signed after taking six years to sort out.

Oldham began planning a joint venture company with NCP, now called NSL Ltd, in 2004.

The report says the contract with NSL was signed in December with council staff transferred.

The council had been using NSL for six years without a formal contract and the agreement should now run for another nine years.

The report states that while some councils have cancelled contracts with specialist contractors because of unsatisfactory service there was no evidence that an “in house” service using council staff is any more cost effective.

NSL has received around £1.3 million a year for handing out parking fines and bailiff services while the council has collected £800,000 a year.

But the recession has caused this income to fall to around £600,000.

There will also be a very significant loss of income from the Union Street area when work on Metrolink begins.

NSL provides a “labour only” service with the council responsible for maintaining the car parks.

A small working group has been formed to look at the parking policy and will meet on January 11.