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Taranto has partnered with Ealing Council since 2018 in a strategic parking enforcement relationship that has evolved over time. In 2024, this partnership took on a new dimension with the addition of Greener Ealing Ltd (GEL), which became responsible for operational parking enforcement services across the London Borough of Ealing. GEL is a Local Authority Trading Company (LATCo), providing a range of environmental services including waste collection and recycling, street cleansing and grounds maintenance to Ealing Council. This new model of a LATCo delivering parking enforcement services is an example of how the combination of a local authority, a commercial company, and a hybrid LATCo can innovate to deliver improved services to the community.
The overriding objective of this partnership is to create the most effective parking enforcement team to enhance safety and convenience for residents, businesses, and visitors in Ealing. This involves enabling active travel, reducing congestion, and ensuring fair and effective use of parking spaces. The partnership aims to improve compliance, minimise violations, and tackle misuse of parking spaces, including pavement parking that disrupts traffic flow and blocks emergency services.
Ealing’s operational parking enforcement services had previously been outsourced to a third-party contractor. As part of GEL’s new contract, the LATCo took on the previous outsourcer’s Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) in a TUPE arrangement.
Ealing Council and GEL worked together in the lead-up to the new contract go-live to establish new working practices to ensure that the parking pressures in the borough were addressed. Taranto technology was at the heart of supporting frontline teams in delivering the new service, as well as in the Ealing Council Parking back-office. As GEL had not previously been involved with parking services, Taranto provided consultancy and advice on best practice in parking enforcement to help the LATCo get up to speed in time for the transition. This successful and supportive working relationship between all three partners ensured a successful process and the immediate effectiveness of the team from the first day of the transition on 1 April 2024.
“The mobilisation of the GEL contract went very smoothly and GEL colleagues worked tremendously hard to ensure a successful transition from the 1st April 2024. I find working with GEL colleagues to be a breath of fresh air and the GEL partnership working to be the one of the best I’ve experienced. Any issues that are raised are swiftly resolved without having to constantly chase and there is now a much closer working relationship in order to address non-compliant issues and make the borough a much safer and cleaner place.”
The Taranto Mobile solution used on CEOs’ handhelds was already in use in Ealing and as part of the transition from the previous outsourcer, GEL took over the handheld contract with Taranto. Working with Taranto as the incumbent technology partner, facilitated a smooth transition from the outgoing enforcement provider to GEL, enabling BAU from day one.
The Taranto Mobile software installed on the CEOs’ Android smartphones offers easy-to-use connectivity and flexibility on the one device. The Taranto Mobile seamlessly integrates with third party systems, enabling GEL to upload the other applications used by all frontline workers such as the company intranet, Alcumus, a health and safety solution which helps GEL to manage and avoid risks and Checksave, keeping the CEOs connected. Taranto Track module is used to track CEOs’ locations and activities to maximise productivity and to help to keep the CEOs safe in case of security incidents.
CEOs efficiency was also improved with the addition of Taranto’s Mobile ANPR spotter to enable CEOs to instantly scan a vehicle registration plate using the handheld device to check for a valid permit or parking session.
In this tri-party partnership, Ealing Council’s Parking Department uses the Taranto back-office solution for PCN processing, appeals and challenges, as well as permits. The solution uses the data collected by the CEOs’ hand-held devices and the mobile ANPR vehicles to provide a comprehensive range of reports to monitor Ealing’s KPIs, such as identifying high-contravention areas and analysing PCN numbers. Reporting and analytics are an important aspect of the parking solution to continually update and improve parking facilities within the borough. The data is utilised for continuous improvement of parking services, such as to refine enforcement strategies, manage permits, and combat blue badge theft.
The partnership allowed Ealing Council to tackle the spike in Blue Badge thefts that deprive genuine disabled badge holders of a designated parking space, causing a huge amount of distress and inconvenience to the victims. Taranto Blue Badge Checker enabled the integration of the Department for Transport’s API into the CEOs’ system, allowing immediate verification of blue badges in real-time. This has resulted in many successful prosecutions for misuse.
The Taranto system can also process a disabled bay permit or disabled resident bay permit, which negates the need for a disabled badge to be displayed. This further helps with reducing blue badge theft and consequent vehicle damage in the borough.
Since GEL took over the parking contract, resident complaints have significantly reduced, which can be directly linked to the improved hardware quality, data insights, and effective management by GEL. CEO productivity has vastly improved: The average monthly PCNs issued has almost doubled, with each CEO issuing an average of 243 PCNs per month, up from 129 in the previous year.
Resident feedback has been very positive: “Recently there has been a wonderful enforcement officer on the Ruislip Road near the shops, school and neighbouring roads. It has made a huge difference to the safe passage of people and reduced the congestion and idling, so thank you from many residents”.
Pritesh Kalyan, Acting Head of Parking Services (Joint) London Borough of Ealing commented as the client within the partnership: “The mobilisation of the GEL contract went very smoothly and GEL colleagues worked tremendously hard to ensure a successful transition from the 1st April 2024. I find working with GEL colleagues to be a breath of fresh air and the GEL partnership working to be the one of the best I’ve experienced. Any issues that are raised are swiftly resolved without having to constantly chase and there is now a much closer working relationship in order to address non-compliant issues and make the borough a much safer and cleaner place.”
“Recently there has been a wonderful enforcement officer on the Ruislip Road near the shops, school and neighbouring roads. It has made a huge difference to the safe passage of people and reduced the congestion and idling, so thank you from many residents”.
