A leaked contract has exposed that Kensington and Chelsea Council ordered traffic wardens to issue a minimum of 306,000 parking tickets per year. The 10-year agreement with enforcement firm NSL, starting in 2006, also set a quota of 15,000 wheel-clampings annually.
The government outlawed parking ticket quotas in 2008, but the council's contract with NSL retained the targets until July 2010. Both the council and NSL insist their operations have always been lawful, claiming the quota system ended when the 2008 guidance was issued.
Transport Minister Norman Baker stated: 'Our guidance to local authorities is clear. They should not set targets for the number of penalty charge notices. Parking charges are a tool to manage demand for road use and setting targets is therefore inherently contradictory.'
Parking campaigner Barrie Segal called the revelation 'sensational', noting that the contract included a penalty clause allowing the council to deduct £53 from NSL for each ticket below the 306,000 target. He said: 'The fact there's a penalty if they don't reach a certain figure shows it's a target.'
The contract came to light following a tribunal case where traffic warden Hakim Berkani was unlawfully dismissed for refusing to comply with the 'clandestine quota system'. A judge found that a minimum requirement of 10 tickets per shift led to 'predatory and dishonest' fines.
Between 1996 and last year, Kensington and Chelsea Council collected £500 million from parking enforcement. Alasdair Seton-Marsden, who helped expose the contract, called for an end to what he described as 'tax farming of motorists'.
