Civica wins £2 million civil enforcement managed service in Barnet

Civica, a market leader in software-based solutions that help organisations to improve service delivery and efficiency, has signed a five year managed software and IT services contract worth £2 million with the London Borough of Barnet for its Civil Enforcement (CE) technology.

Civica will host and manage IT systems for Barnet Council’s parking service using its integrated CE software. The new technology will allow the council to record all parking notices in real time, enabling civil enforcement officers to be sent to congested areas quickly using GPS handheld devices and giving residents the means to manage payments or appeals online.

Barnet Council issues 120,000 on-street parking notices every year, 45,000 notices via CCTV imaging and 14,000 parking permits for doctors, teachers and residents.

If a parking or road traffic contravention is detected, Civica’s Civil Enforcement system will enable penalty notices to be issued automatically based on CCTV images, through integration with Zenco’s digital CCTV systems. This will support Barnet's drive to ease local traffic congestion through enforcing penalty notices for bus lane contraventions.

Penalty notices and photographic images will also be issued in real-time from handheld units provided for Barnet’s civil enforcement officers. CE will ensure parking notices and images are available across the council networks and to Barnet’s resident-facing website. Residents will make their own payments or if necessary, appeal against the notice via the website based on the end-to-end notice administration and payment process the CE platform provides.

The CE system also offers Barnet’s residents the ability to post their own digital photographic evidence on the council’s website if they are appealing against the penalty notice as well as simplifying the purchase of parking permits online, and providing transparent penalty notice administration.

Civica's end-to-end system is provided under a fully managed service that offers Barnet resilience and assurance with service level guarantees for 24/7 operation. Barnet's platform is hosted on virtualised servers within Civica’s highly resilient data centre environment, which includes back-up centres and a redundant backbone network enabling full disaster recovery service on all enforcement data if needed.

Nicolina Cooper, highways manager – Parking, Enforcement and Transport, Barnet Council, said: “Using Civica’s managed and hosted Civil Enforcement system will mean we have peace of mind that our enforcement administration runs smoothly as well as achieving increased efficiency benefits through automating core processes.

“In the past our officers would collect information on a handheld unit and download their parking notices into the central enforcement system at the end of the day when back at the office.

“With Civica’s new Civil Enforcement system details will be recorded in real time so we have an exact record of when and where the notice was issued based on the information sent from the CCTV images, providing very accurate ticket administration. Residents will benefit from an online service where they can quickly and simply check notice details, pay for parking permits and appeal with their own evidence if necessary. It’s a more transparent service.”

John Dutton, Enforcement managing director, Civica said: “Civica’s managed CE system is revolutionising how councils run their civil enforcement operations as they are now able to outsource what is a traditionally heavy administrative burden. Barnet has been a Civica customer for many years and is now fully harnessing the benefits of Civica’s CE by integrating it with CCTV images, mobile devices, customer facing websites and its contact centre. We look forward to helping the authority provide a higher standard of civil enforcement administration and customer service while increasing its efficiency savings.”

Civica will also provide Barnet Council with Psion handheld units with accompanying rugged Zebra thermal printers.

The handheld devices supplied by Civica are enabled with GPS (Global Positioning System) so time and location are recorded as soon as an officer issues a ticket or makes a note, at the same time as mapping the officers’ routes on a secure website for council employees.

Key features of the handheld devices to be used by civil enforcement officers include:

• “presence” function sends a regular signal to the central enforcement system so managers can see which officers are logged on when and where, providing more accurate reporting and increased officer safety
• a “panic button” that will send a red alert to the central system if an officer is in trouble
• the system’s location-based element means Barnet can allocate more officers where there is parking congestion, while giving employees assurance that their location is known at all times