The council has extended its parking enforcement contract with NSL for a year, after a ‘consistently good performance’ helped the council to earn almost £3m from parking services.

Reading Borough Council (RBC) earned a gross income of around £2.9m from parking services in 2017/18, compared to around £1.7m in 2016/17.

Parking enforcement generates around half of the income.

NSL’s contract – to provide services including on and off-street civil enforcement, bus lane enforcement and online permits – was extended until October 2020.

Councillor Page, lead member for Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport, said the council would consider over the next few months whether to bring enforcement in-house.

He said: “We have been getting a good level of service from our current contractor but that doesn’t in any way preclude the need and timeliness for a review of this service.”

Simon Beasley, network and parking services manager, said the short extension – until October 2020 – will enable the council to ‘continue to explore’ its enforcement operations.

The extension was agreed by the Policy committee on January 14.

NSL provides services including on and off-street civil enforcement, bus lane enforcement and online permit.

Bus lane penalty charge notices were the council’s biggest earner, generating around £2.8m before costs, such as the £1.7m contract with NSL, are considered.

The report from Alison Bell, director for environment and neighbourhood services, adds: “The NSL contract continues to perform well and is expected to achieve slightly better results financially than the budget set for 2018/19.”