Forum Message

Topic: Re:Serco
Posted by: Dan Murphy
Date/Time: 11/11/14 08:39:00

John - yes indeed it is. Our young Councillor Mayne proudly announced the £30m (but probably £87m with contracted extensions) agreement with Serco in April last year.

At the time, Cllr Mayne stated "This trailblazing agreement represents a great deal for Hounslow's taxpayers and motorists. It's a no brainer". (Just as well, you might say).

At least it would have represented great value, until Serco had to admit that they had been suffering from catastrophic mismanagement (they have called it "strategic missteps"), and have had to write of £1.5bn of value and send out a £550m begging leter to shareholders. their shares have crashed from £5 to £2.15 in the last few months following one disaster after another.

Their costs have spiralled, as it has emerged that their cost management on major contracts is pathetic. They are writing down £200m against UK contracts as it has emerged that they cannot do even the most basic things right (such as provide basic housing facilities for asylum seekers). Andrew Gibb, a highly respected analyst at Investco has not bought the "few bad apples" story, and is warning that we may not have heard the full story yet.

And of course, as Serco becomes ever more desperate to shore up its earnings, where do you think they will turn to find additional cash? Who will be the easiest targets? it will be CPZ permit charges and parking fines, and targets for parking officers, and so on. You can bet your life on it.

Interestingly, Serco have introduced new parking control technology that uses automatic number plate recognition to capture parked cars and check if they have paid for tickets / permits etc. This is done using Serco vehicles driving around the "virtual enforcement area" checking every car. Of course, it makes it annoyingly complicated (and expensive) when you have an irritating CPZ-free area (such as Grove Park) bang in the middle of a much wider CPZ controlled area (like the rest of W4), as the Serco cars have to recognise that permits are not required in certain streets. No doubt Serco would have discussed that difficulty (and perhaps possible solutions) with Councillor Mayne when they began negotiating the contract back in 2011/12.

It will be interesting to see how Serco shapes up over the coming months, and if the "Great deal for Hounslow residents and motorists" continues to be such a great idea. Watch this space.


Entire Thread
TopicDate PostedPosted By
Serco11/11/14 07:47:00 John Southey
   Re:Serco11/11/14 08:39:00 Dan Murphy
   Re:Serco11/11/14 09:17:00 John Martin
      Re:Re:Serco11/11/14 09:28:00 John Southey
         Re:Re:Re:Serco11/11/14 11:08:00 Dan Murphy
            Re:Re:Re:Re:Serco11/11/14 11:20:00 Dan Murphy
               Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Serco11/11/14 11:52:00 Birna Helgadottir
                  Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Serco11/11/14 12:40:00 Richard Greenhough
                     Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Serco13/11/14 07:37:00 Dan Evans
                        Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Serco13/11/14 08:18:00 Maggie Dodge

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