Sefton is the most northerly of the local authority areas in the Liverpool City region with a population of around 280,000. It is home to many world famous events and attractions including the Grand National steeplechase at Aintree, Antony Gormley’s Another Place artwork on Crosby beach and Royal Birkdale Golf Club which is a regular Open Championship venue.
The Challenge
Having operated the parking enforcement service on behalf of Sefton Council since being awarded the contract in 2012, NSL was asked to supplement this with a new environmental protection role. Delivered by a new and separate team, this additional service focused on the enforcement of littering and dog fouling throughout the borough and started in 2014. Four years later, the council asked us to combine our parking and environmental teams to achieve even greater efficiencies.
The Solution
Consolidating resources in this way has created a single, larger team that handles both the parking and environmental responsibilities simultaneously whilst out on patrol. This unique solution requires on-street personnel to issue penalty charge notices for parking contraventions and fixed penalty notices for environmental offences such as littering. They also use Public Space Protection Order legislation making anti-social behaviour, such as failing to control dogs, a criminal offence.
According to Dave Marrin, Highway Management Manager at Sefton Council: “The implementation and of the new style service has exceeded all our expectations. It is enabling us to maintain levels of parking enforcement whilst making a real impact on improving compliance with our environmental objectives.”
NSL delivers an efficient parking enforcement service that has improved compliance, particularly outside schools where it has had a major impact on increasing road safety. The council is also seeing evidence that environmental enforcement has driven a change in behaviour especially in town centres, where the visible presence of civil enforcement officers has encouraged people to dispose of their litter more appropriately.
To raise awareness of what is being done to reduce the incidence of dog fouling, we have participated in public awareness sessions with Green Sefton, the council’s parks department. These sessions improve engagement and provide an opportunity to explain the enforcement approach that has been adopted and hand out information leaflets.
Our on-street personnel do far more than just enforcement. They also play an ambassadorial role for the council by guiding people to available parking spaces and providing visitors with directions to the many events that take place each year throughout the borough. These include the Southport Flower Show, Aintree Grand National, golf championships and air shows.
A number of additional activities were carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. They include:
• Traffic management at household waste and recycling centres in Bootle and Southport including signage and cones around the sites.
• Traffic management at short notice to support a surge testing hub at KGV College in Southport.
• Pedestrian barriers as additional security at location accommodating 2,000 members of the armed forces delivering the Merseyside enhanced testing programme.
• Pedestrian barriers, traffic management signage, coning and general site preparation for multiple mobile testing sites, pop up surge testing sites and vaccination centres.
This unique contract provides high levels of parking enforcement and enables the council to demonstrate its commitment to tackling the many litter and dog fouling issues raised by residents. This is contributing towards making the whole borough a more pleasant and liveable environment for local residents whilst helping to maintain the vital visitor economy by making Sefton a more attractive place to visit.
Mark Hoskin, Group Business Development Director at Marston Holdings, added: “We are proud to be supporting Sefton Council and believe that this contract demonstrates our rapid, flexible and responsive approach to meeting the requirements of clients wishing to try new and innovative service delivery methodologies.”
As part of our ongoing commitment to serving the local community, we have undertaken a number of social value activities. They include:
• Staff collections for local foodbanks
• Macmillan fundraising coffee mornings
• Using Sefton@Work, a local employment support service to recruit staff
In summary, the services provided by NSL include:
Parking Enforcement:
• Parking compliance including outside schools
• Cash collection from over 150 pay and display terminals
• Staffing and cash collection at two park and ride locations
• Maintenance of parking payment terminals
• Car park cleaning and grounds maintenance
• Signs and lines
• Parking suspensions
• Temporary restrictions
• Event management
Environmental Enforcement:
• Littering
• Rubbish sacks put out by householders
• Dog control in public spaces
• Dog fouling
• Exclusion zones
