Minutes
Independent Appeals Service Board for Parking on Private Land
Held on
Friday 5 September 2014
th
Present- Nicola Mullany – Chair, Saadiya Ahmad -Deputy Chair, Douglas Campbell OBE, Bob Dyson QPM D
Manny Rasores de Toro, Nick Randle OBE- Director
Michael Greenslade – Lead Adjudicator POPLA, Richard Reeve POPLA Service Manager and Patrick Troy
Chief Executive, BPA attended parts of the meeting as indicated
043. Apologies for absence and declarations of interest, gifts and meetings
All members were present. Bob Dyson and Saadiya Ahmad had declined an invitation to the BPA
Parliamentary event, Douglas Campbell had accepted an invitation to attend the event and also attended
the Parkex conference. Manny Rasores de Toro declared that as he is a Director of the BPA he attends a
wide range of such events in that capacity including the Parliamentary reception and Parkex. The chair had
prior to the meeting updated her declarations of gifts regarding the Parliamentary event (accepted) and
invitation to Parkex (declined).
044. Minutes of Previous Meeting (9th May 2014)
With one amendment proposed by the Chair the minutes of 9th May were adopted as a true and accurate
record of the meeting.
It was agreed that future meetings would start at 11:10.
MATTERS ARISING
The chair noted that some actions were outstanding from the previous meeting due to the Director’s
limited time allocation and conflicting priorities and that these would be carried forward.
Time to pay – Resolution was write to the BPA to say that the board believes that appellants should be
given 28 days to pay and in the statutory scheme.
Publishing decisions – Resolution was to write to POPLA asking them to assess how much it would cost to
publish decisions made on one day.
Grounds for appeal- Resolution was to undertake research and contact all the attendees at the parking
summit to research views.
Adding POPLA fee to court proceedings- The operator in question has now left the BPA approved operator
scheme and therefore will no longer have cases submitted to POPLA.
The director was asked to give priority to these issues following the meeting.
045.Document of agreement between the DVLA and all Accredited Trade Associations regarding the
management of operators changing membership from one Accredited Trade Association to the other (re.
minute 039 May 2014)
The board assumed that the Document of Agreement was drafted by the BPA and the IPC and was being
offered to the DVLA as a good practice approach to managing the situation when operators moved
between one ATA to another. The board resolved to note the document and asked to be kept informed of
any developments when the DVLA had received it.
[The board’s assumption was later confirmed by the Chief Executive of the BPA later in the meeting.]
046 Judgement in Parking Eye v Beavis and Wardley (re GPEOL. Section 7 refers)
Resolved. To note the judgement.
047.To consider the election of a Deputy Chairman (re minute 008 February 2104)
Following discussion it was resolved to elect Saadiya Ahmad as Deputy Chairman. She will lead the process
for the appointment of the chairman, which is due in August 2015. She will begin the process of
consultation in February 2015 and the director agreed to write to her at this time.
047.To consider Board Terms of Office and Succession Plans
Due to the staggered terms of office the term for Manny Rasores De Toro is due to expire in February 2015.
In order to ensure continuity the matter was being discussed now. The Chairman has the power of
appointment although she indicated that in future when consultation structures were in place she would
consult stakeholders on appropriate candidate criteria. Manny had indicated that he would wish to be
considered for a second term and the Chairman re appointed him for a second term from February 2015 to
January 2018.
CURRENT BUSINESS
048. Business Case for Increased Funding
The Board considered the Business Case for additional funding. Significant additional funding is required to
allow the Independent Scrutiny Board to meet to set itself up and to operate as an independent entity in
the years ahead. It was recognised that there are clear pressures to manage the costs of the Appeals
Service, including independent scrutiny, but the board felt that it is important that lack of resources did not
continue to inhibit it in fulfilling its role. It was resolved that the Director should meet with the BPA to
discuss the issue and seek a solution that was acceptable to the board and the organisations funding it. In
preparation for this he would do further work to lay out the detail of the costs involved to ensure that the
case is clear.
It was further resolved that the Director would be authorised to work in the short term, as necessary to
meet needs, so that momentum is maintained pending a longer term solution of the issue.
This is subject to his availability and to not incurring a deficit on the overall annual budget without prior
board and BPA agreement.
049. Memorandum of Understanding between the Board and the BPA
The Director discussed the progress on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the BPA. This
should describe the relationship between the board and the BPA and specifically ensure its independence.
There was some difficulty in defining the MOU due to potential differences in interpreting the scope of the
board’s role and the difficulties arising from the resources available. Following discussion it was resolved
that the director would hold discussions with the BPA specifically to identify an MOU draft which was
acceptable and identify specific issues for discussion with the board at its next meeting.
050. Review of Tender documents for the future POPLA contract
The board reviewed the draft documents and agreed that its role was to identify issues affecting the
independence of the service or its efficiency or effectiveness.
Initial review identified that the document was at too early a stage to be able to comment on it
meaningfully. It had, however, already been noted, capability to file appeals by both electronic and hard
copy should be made explicit. It was also felt that the ability to handle appeals in the Welsh language is
important, as this is an official language supported by statute in Wales. The board also wished to clarify the
weighting applied to different criteria in the procurement and especially the term “economically
advantageous to the BPA only”.
The board subsequently discussed the document with the Chief Executive of the BPA and it was resolved
that the completed document would be circulated to board members and that members would raise issues
by email for input to the BPA. It was further resolved to agree an additional days fee to be paid to each
board member (except the chair) in the next fee claim to provide for time to work on this and other
emailed documents during the coming months.
051. Annual Report
The board reviewed the draft report and agreed one amendment. It was agreed that the publication date in
future years would be June to synchronise with the POPLA annual report. It was resolved that the report
will be published on the website, when available and will cover the period to June 2014.
052. Progress Review, House Style and Website.
The board reviewed website options in two different styles and with two different logo proposals provided
by the contracted website developer. These would form the basis for the house style, and the website look
and feel. The website would comply to published disabled access standards. It was felt that the photos of
board members should, when funds permitted, be replaced by portraits taken by a single photographer to
ensure a consistent approach.
Following discussion it was agreed that the Board’s logo should be the ISPA logo with a tick incorporated,
the look and feel of the first proposal was accepted, however it was agreed that photographs of car parks
did not adequately convey the board’s role. Having decided the house style the website pages would now
be developed and board members would be able to see the initial site before it went live.
053. To Consider letters from Stephen Glaister – Director, RAC Foundation and Keith Hughes of the DFT
Upon discussion of the letter from Stephen Glaister the board resolved to respond that it did not believe it
was likely that the board would be asked to provide scrutiny of the IPC service but were concerned about
consistency of approach. However before doing so the matter might be discussed with Government to
assess their interest in it. The director would write to Stephen Glaister to advise him the board would be
discussing the matter further with the DfT.
Having received the DFT response to the Board’s letter to the Secretary of State in which the department
declined the invitation to attend and observe board meetings but proposed a separate meeting in a more
informal setting it was resolved that the Chairman and Director would attend such a meeting as soon as
this could be arranged.
It was further resolved to approach the DVLA and request a meeting.
As the board meeting was running ahead of schedule it was agreed to bring item 060 forward and consider
it before lunch.
060. Operator Evidence Packs
Having heard the board’s previous decision regarding operator evidence packs the complainant made some
suggestions as to how the process could be improved. Following discussion with the lead adjudicator the
main issue had to do with anticipated workload arising from attempting to ensure that claimants had sight
of all evidence in their cases.
It was resolved to ask the Lead Adjudicator to hold a trial on one day where they check that evidence packs
had been sent to the appellant by the operator. This would give an insight into the practicality of
implementing the suggestions made by the complainant.
Following lunch the board was joined at 13:15 by Michael Greenslade – Lead Adjudicator and Richard
Reeve, POPLA service Manager
054.Popla Service Report
The Service Manager summarised the Service report and indicated that there were no major changes in
outcomes from the previous position. Most indicators were at or near their targets.
Richard Reeve left the meeting at 13:27
053. Report From Lead Adjudicator.
The lead adjudicator indicated that he had no major issues to raise. He was asked to consider the one-day
trial described under item 60 above and he agreed to undertake this within a week to ten days of the
meeting.
The board was joined by Patrick Troy Chief Executive of the BPA at 13:42
ISSUES RAISED BY THE BPA
Patrick Troy raised three matters with the board.
055. Future of the Approved Operator Scheme
The BPA Board considered a paper on the future of the BPA's Approved Operator Scheme (AOS) that could
affect POPLA. The BPA Board agreed in principle to review the relationship between the BPA and the AOS
with a view to separating the two in the medium term. He also indicated that the BPA were in support of
the issues raised by the RAC at item 053 above and where drafting a simple paper for use with government
on the issue. Once that was drafted he would forward this to the board.
056. POPLA Financial Issues
The board was made aware of a financial issue arising from a challenge to London Councils accounts by a
member of the public. This related to the way overheads were charged back and could potentially increase
the bill for the previous year’s Appeals service. Patrick indicated that this was currently a potential area of
dispute between the two organisations.
057. BPA Governance
Patrick briefed the board on changes to the internal governance of the BPA which had seen the AOS board,
which funds the Scrutiny Board being abolished. The BPA board with a primary interest in the appeals
service would now be the Operational service Board.
COMPLAINTS AND ISSUES RAISED BY STAKEHOLDERS.
058. Operator Threatening Defamation Action. The complainant withdrew this item.
Operator Charging for PoPLA. The complainant withdrew this item.
There being no other business the meeting closed at 14:23
Signed Chairman
Date