Issue - meetings

To consider the head of development and corporate landlord’s report (report to follow).

The Cabinet member for Environmental Services and Waste introduced the report, supported by the Head of Development and Corporate Landlord and the Technical Services Manager. The report provided options for providing the car park service as of October 2025, jointly with South Oxfordshire District Council.

The four options for consideration all rely on shared service delivery with South Oxfordshire District Council and were:

1) In-house: day-to-today delivery is entirely delivered within the councils by directly employed staff.

2) Contract extension: day-to-day operation is entirely delivered by extending the existing contract with Saba.

3) Retendering the contract: day-to-day delivery is entirely delivered by a contractor (which may be Saba) following a competitive procurement exercise. 4) Third Party Agreement: whereby another organisation, for example a neighbouring council such as Oxfordshire County Council, is engaged to carry out parking management and enforcement on behalf of the council.

Option two was recommended by officers and the Cabinet member. The Cabinet member explained that in-house could be marginally cheaper, however staff did not have the employee and pension liability information to assess this. It was explained that extending by two years would give time for a strategic review of carparks and help the council to navigate a period with multiple council contract end activities. Saba performance had recently been assessed as excellent, supporting contract extension.

The Cabinet member added that Saba had offered to pay the Real Living Wage for the first year of the contract extension and then review this in the second year. It was explained that the council needed to agree to the same terms as their neighbouring council, South Oxfordshire (SODC) for a joint contract, to avoid significant risks. SODC agreed option two at their Cabinet meeting on 17 October 2024. Cabinet member commended the staff involved in producing this report.

There was a discussion about the contract options after the proposed two-year extension. A member wanted certainty over assessment of in-house options, and it was confirmed that the officer team were prepared to review all options ahead of the expiry of the proposed extension, should it be agreed. All options were still open for assessment. Cabinet agreed an additional recommendation (d) to acknowledge the discussion and for officers to consider. Cabinet voted in favour for the following recommendations.

RESOLVED:

(a)  Cabinet considered the options to provide the parking service starting from 1 October 2025

(b)  Cabinet recommends option two to Full Council, which involves extending the current contract with Saba Park Services UK Limited (Saba) for two years until 30 September 2027 as a shared service with South Oxfordshire District Council.

(c)  Cabinet recommends to the Full Council that responsibility be delegated to the Head of Development and Corporate Landlord, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Finance and Property, to finalise and sign the contractual arrangements.

(d)  Should recommendations (b) and (c) be agreed, Cabinet request that officers continue to consider all options for the future of car park management.