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European Commission clears Westminster over car parking contract

The European Commission has cleared Westminster Council of wrongdoing after an investigation into one of the local authority’s parking contracts.

The investigation looked at Westminster’s joint venture, Partnerships in Parking, which was set up in 2007 in conjunction with Transport for London and five other London boroughs – Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea, City of London, Camden and Islington – to jointly procure and manage parking services from the private sector. The contract to provide pay-by-phone services was then awarded to Verrus.

But when other London boroughs joined PiP and began to use Verrus, a complaint was made that the contract should have been re-tendered.

The Office for Government Commerce, which received the initial complaint, decided not to investigate.

The European Commission then issued a formal notice on 20 November 2009 asking the UK government to explain why it had not investigated the complaint.

Westminster has now revealed that it has received formal confirmation from the OGC that the EU had closed the investigation after satisfying itself that no wrongdoing had taken place.

Cllr Lee Rowley, Westminster Council's cabinet member for parking, said: "We always maintained that this contract was properly awarded following a tender process carried out in accordance with the law and the council's procurement processes and we are obviously pleased that the EU has decided to close this case.”