City Appoints Interim Parking Contractors

Two kerb side parking contractors have been appointed in the Central Business District, Sea Point and Claremont on a month to month basis until the City of Cape Town is able to publicly re-advertise the tender for a long term contractor to manage kerb side parking in the city. They will start tomorrow, Tuesday 2 May 2006.

These interim appointments effectively ensure that there will not be a vacuum in the management of kerb side parking following recent court judgements. On 24 April 2006 the Supreme Court of Appeal decided not to permit the City to appeal the judgement of the High Court setting aside the City's contract with parking contractor Numque. Numque's contract with the City was formally discontinued on 26 April 2006.

Mike Marsden, Executive Director Transport Roads and Planning, said that a parking management system was critically important in ensuring the functionality of business areas with regular turn over of parking bays necessary for commercial activity. The intensity of business activity in the CBD, Sea Point and Claremont meant that the City had to come up with an interim Parking Management System because of the negative implications for business without one. This potentially negative implication constituted an exceptional circumstance and permitted the City, in terms of its Procurement Policy, to follow a less formal tender process than required under normal circumstances.

Marsden said the City had undertaken an informal tender process in which previous tenderers for the management of kerb side parking had been approached for proposals. Four proposals had been received and evaluated over the weekend. The recommendations had been accepted by the Acting City Manager and will come into effect tomorrow, Tuesday, 2 May. These contracts will be on a month to month basis.

The contractors which had been appointed were Numque for the CBD/Sea Point area and Street Parking Solutions for the Claremont area. Both Contractors offered similar systems with which the public was already familiar. Parking tariffs would remain the same.

Marsden said the Court's decision did not exclude any service provider from submitting an offer for the interim arrangements and all offers had been objectively evaluated. The areas of Rondebosch, Newlands and Bellville which were previously under the parking management system would be evaluated over the next few days to ascertain if exceptional circumstances prevailed there as well. If exceptional circumstances were found to prevail which impacted negatively on business, further appointments of an interim nature were possible to ensure the operation of a parking system in these areas to prevent them from becoming dysfunctional.

Marsden said that the formal tender documentation for the provision of a Parking Management System in the City was complete and would be publicly advertised in the next week. Once a long term contractor had been appointed under this process, the present interim arrangements would be discontinued.

Marsden said the Metropolitan Police had been requested to ensure a high visibility presence in the areas were the interim arrangements were being introduced from tomorrow. He called on members of the public to support the interim arrangements to ensure that business areas remained functional and well regulated with respect to kerb side parking and a regular turn over of parking bays.

Issued by:
Pieter Cronjé
Media Manager,
Directorate: Communication and Marketing
City of Cape Town
Email: media@capetown.gov.za
Tel: 021 400 2201
Fax: 021 957 0023

Media queries:
Mike Marsden
Tel: 021 400 5010
Cell: 084 432 2565