Cabinet is asked on 22 September to approve a ten-year parking enforcement contract from 2028. The terms sit in a confidential annex.
Bracknell Forest Council’s Cabinet is asked tonight to start buying a new parking management and enforcement contract with a recommended term of ten years, running from 1 July 2028. The public report does not say what it will cost. That sits in a confidential annex, and the press and public are to be excluded from the room while it is discussed.
Cabinet meets at 6.30pm on Tuesday 22 September in the Council Chamber at Time Square, Market Street. The report is item 8 on the agenda.
What Cabinet is being asked to agree
The report by the Executive Director: Place makes two recommendations:
- Approve the approach in the confidential annex, described as one lot with a recommended term of ten years from 1 July 2028.
- Delegate authority to approve the final contract award, and any extensions, to the Executive Director: Place, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Planning, Transport and Countryside.
The second recommendation is the significant one. If it is agreed, the decision on who actually gets the contract, and on extending it beyond ten years, is taken by an officer rather than returned to Cabinet.
The council’s existing contract ends on 30 June 2028. The report says extensions to it “cannot be granted”, so a procurement is unavoidable. Enforcement of on and off-street restrictions is a statutory duty under the Traffic Management Act 2004.
The council looked at bringing it in-house and ruled it out on cost
The report’s section on alternatives is four lines long, and it contains the choice most residents would want debated:
“The Council could consider bringing the service back in-house but this is anticipated to exceed available budget for this service.”
No figure is attached to that statement in the public report.
The report also separates the two halves of the contract in a way worth noting. Enforcement “is statutory and impacts all residents”. Car park management is “non statutory”, but the council says managing its own car parks “provides a high level of income generation”. In other words, one half is a legal obligation and the other half is a revenue stream, and both are going out to the same bidder.
On performance, the report is brief: “The existing contract performs well with minor adjustments to the specification required.” It expects “a number of bids from nationally recognised suppliers”, bought through Lot 3 of the GCA (formerly CCS) Transport Technology framework, an above-threshold route the council says complies with the Procurement Act 2023.
The equality impact assessment for the existing contract “identified the impact of the service as neutral impact for all protected characteristics”, and the report identifies no change.
It lands in a year of parking savings
The council is already taking money out of parking. Its own Council Plan Overview Report for April to June, which goes to the same Cabinet meeting as item 6, lists five parking savings in this year’s budget worth £142,000 between them.
| Saving | Value | Status at Q1 |
|---|---|---|
| Rationalise the car parking machinery maintenance contract | £89,000 | Delivered |
| Increase staff parking charges for council employees | £23,000 | On track |
| Withdraw subsidised parking for Bracknell & Wokingham College students at Braccan Walk | £13,000 | On track |
| Share the cost of the supplier’s contract management with another council | £10,000 | Delivered |
| Withdraw the “poorly used” Lexicon parking app | £7,000 | Delivered |
Two of those come with the council’s own warnings attached. On staff charges it notes that “increasing income year on year may be difficult and might impact on staff retention”. On the college students’ subsidy, withdrawn from the start of the 2026/27 academic year this month, it says income needs monitoring through the year.
The same report puts a sixth transport-adjacent saving under review: reducing opening hours at the borough’s household waste recycling centres, worth £35,000, which the council records as not yet decided and needing at least three months to implement if agreed.
What it means for you
Nothing changes at the barrier before July 2028. The current contractor continues until 30 June that year. Tariffs are set by the council, not the contractor, so this decision is about who collects and enforces, not directly about what you pay.
The length is the thing to watch. Ten years is long for a service contract, and the report asks for extensions to be delegated as well. Whoever wins will be running Bracknell’s car parks and issuing its penalty charge notices into the late 2030s.
You can watch the public part. Items 5 and 6, the participation strategy and the Q1 performance report, are in open session. Items 7, 8 and 9, including this one, are not: Cabinet is asked to exclude the public and press under Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, on the ground that they involve the financial or business affairs of a particular person.
If you want to raise it, the report gives two contacts. It lists Councillor Guy Gillbe, described in the contacts box as Cabinet member for the Environment, Community and Housing, although the body of the report is headed “Cabinet member for Planning, Transport and Countryside”. The report author is Damian James, Assistant Director Contract Services (interim), and it is authorised by Andrew Hunter, Executive Director Place.
Sources
- Cabinet agenda, Tuesday 22 September 2026, Bracknell Forest Council.
- Strategic Procurement Plan for Parking Management & Enforcement Contract July 2028, report to Cabinet, 22 September 2026.
- Council Plan Overview Report, Quarter 1 2026/27, Bracknell Forest Council.
More local information
- Parking in Bracknell: every council car park, tariffs, permit zones and Blue Badge rules.
- Bracknell roadworks and travel: every closure now booked in the borough.
- Bracknell council tax bands: what each band costs in 2026/27.
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