WIRRAL Council is reportedly losing more than £400,000 on a parking enforcement contract after councillors questioned its “thorny and opaque” parking accounts.

The local authority said it could look to review the contract and bring services in house.

Questions around the contract were raised by Oxton councillor Cllr Allan Brame during a full council meeting on October 7. It follows an ongoing but highly controversial public feedback exercise by the local authority over whether to introduce parking charges at 22 car parks and roads in three coastal areas where they are currently free, as well as increase charges for parking permits and car parks across the board.

Cllr Brame said the council’s parking enforcement contract with NSL, which describes itself as the UK’s “leading provider of parking enforcement services,” cost around £760,000 a year but the council only made £330,000 from parking charge notices. He asked the council to explain “why the enforcement contract manages to lose money.”

In response, the chair for the responsible committee for parking Cllr Liz Grey said: “The parking enforcement contract does cost more than the income raised through the issuing of parking penalties. However parking enforcement extends beyond simply raising income through penalty charge notices.

“The service responds to significant numbers of requests from residents, businesses, elected members, and MPs. A number of these requests are for a visible presence to help ease congestion on our roads and enhance traffic flow, improving driver behaviour, to protect pedestrians, assisting buses and authorised service vehicles to operate more effectively, and managing a regional turnover of parking spaces.

“Without enforcement, the council would be at risk of not generating any income from paid parking spaces.”

Following this response, Cllr Brame asked if the contract could be reviewed going forward given “the discrepancy between the amount we’re paying and that amount that is coming in and whether it would be worth bringing the service back in house. Cllr Grey said: “That can definitely be reviewed and considered.”

NSL and Marston Holdings were approached for comment. The issue of car parking charges continues to be controversial with many members of the public opposing the move and councillors putting out competing claims on social media.

Comments by the Green Party that “all council taxpayers subsidise parking” were criticised by Liberal Democrat councillor Stuart Kelly. He claimed there was a surplus of £800,000 in the council’s parking accounts and the proposed increases in charges could raise this to £1.1m.

Wirral Council has been repeatedly asked to provide a detailed breakdown of its parking budget in light of conflicting claims about its parking accounts. It did not respond to the LDRS’ requests.

Parking charges came up later in the October 7 meeting where Cllr Grey was criticised by West Kirby councillor Simon Mountney. Referring to comments she made at a committee meeting in July over the policy, he argued there were “serious shortcomings in your strategy document,” and accused her of “becoming the sole driving voice” in the council and lacking “empathy and understanding of these issues, and that means you can’t take the public with you.”

At the July meeting, Cllr Liz Grey made comments including that the council had “to balance the books one way or another,” adding council officers “highlighted a particularly challenging situation that we are heading into and it’s not sustainable that we can just keep dipping into reserves and things in sorting stuff out.”

According to Wirral Council’s constitution, committee chair responsibility means they do not make decisions on policy which is decided by all councillors on the local authority’s various committees.  The council’s Environment, Climate Emergency, and Transport committee will review and discuss public feedback over the charges at a later date.

Cllr Grey said initially she would provide a written response, but later added: “There is a consultation going on about parking charges at the moment. I advise all residents who have any thoughts or ideas about parking charges to take part.”

Later on in the same meeting, Cllr Grey put forward a motion calling for unity in the wake of the riots following the Southport attacks in July. The motion was approved unanimously and called for the council “to promote unity, tolerance and respect for all.”

Cllr Grey urged councillors “act peacefully in our political campaigns and set an example of respect and tolerance” and “to think again about their words and how that might lead to actions.” She said: “For politicians, that means avoiding negative and oppositional rhetoric and campaigning instead of positive alternatives to ideas that we don’t agree with.

“Of course, that only works if you can actually think of positive alternatives. The lazy option of simply shooting down the ideas of others creates a breeding ground for anger and hostility, especially in the anonymity of the internet where misogyny and racism flourish.”