Vehicle Recovery and Storage - Portsmouth

The Council has a Legal statutory obligation to remove abandoned vehicles and acts proactively in accordance with the Refuse Disposal & Amenity Act 1978.

In addition to the above statutory obligation, the Council conducts other vehicle enforcement using its power enacted under the following statutory instruments inclusive of but not limited to:

• Untaxed Vehicles - VERA 1997
• Persistent Evaders - Traffic Management Act 2004
• Parking Contraventions - Traffic Management Act 2004
• Dangerous Vehicles - Highways Act 1980
• Non-Motorised Vehicles (Caravans / Boars) - Highways Act 1980
• Noise Abatement (Car Alarms) Environment Protection Act 1990
• Traveller Eviction - CJPO 1994
• Civil Trespass - from Council Owned or Manged Land

The Council also conducts vehicle removal enforcement operations in order to remove and relocate vehicles obstructing areas suspended for street works and public & civic events held annually within Portsmouth.

The usual working hours under this contract would be between 0800 and 1700, although the contract requires the contractor to provide a 24-hours removal service in the event of an emergency and also provide an out of hours contact number as part of the service.

The contractor will be required to provide an effective service which would need to have available resources to cover ad Hoc requests for removal of vehicles, predominately during standard office hours between 0800 and 1700 but there would be occasions when requests are made outside of these hours and/or in an emergency.

The Council Authorised Officer or Designated Approved Officers shall approve all removals outside of the working hours.

The contractor would be required to have a secure compound solely dedicated to Portsmouth City Council and have the capacity to hold up to 35 vehicles of any size. This could on occasions include vehicles exceeding five tonnes inclusive of all HGV and PSV categories. The Storage facility would need to be secure at all times, well lit and covered by CCTV.

The contractor would also need to be able to provide a secure unit or storeroom preferably within the secure compound, or their premises to securely store any goods removed from vehicles by officers of the Council.

Vehicles not claimed by owners would need to be stored following minimum statutory periods:

• Abandoned Vehicles - 7 - 14 days
• Untaxed Vehicles - 7 - 14 days (or as directed by DVLA)
• TMA - Persistent Evader PE Vehicles - 28 - 35 days

Vehicles may need to be stored longer than statutory periods if there is any ongoing investigations or disputes.

Below is an indication of the removal types and an indication of the deadline for removals relevant to which category the removal falls in.

"IMMEDIATE" shall mean a vehicle removal that is required with immediate effect - removal must be no longer than 30mins of the request. In general requests for immediate removals will be sent to the Contractor no later than 17:00 hrs.

"URGENT" shall mean a vehicle removal, which must be carried out the within 2 hours of the request. In general requests for Urgent removals will be sent to the Contractor no later than 17:00 hrs.

"STANDARD" shall mean a vehicle removal, which must be carried out the same day of the request. In general, requests for standard removals will be sent to the Contractor no later than 17:00 hrs.

"EMERGENCY" shall mean a vehicle removal that is required outside of normal office hours - removal must be no longer than 1 hour of the request.

The category of removal required, shall be detailed on the removal request sent to Contractor or notified direct to the contractor if the request is made by telephone. Removal requests shall only be made by "the Council" Approved Officers.

The contract performance will be monitored using specific Key Performance Indicators and service credits that will be applicable for any service failure, both of these are clearly indicated in the tender documents.

The contract will be executed using Portsmouth City Council's Standard Service Terms and Conditions for Removal and Storage of Vehicles.