Council that scrapped free bike parking in fraud probe

A council that scrapped free motorcycle parking is at the centre of a fraud investigation into two of its senior officers.

It’s alleged they broke European Union law by handing a firm a parking contract worth £13 million a year without giving other companies a chance to bid for it.

A Met spokesman said: “We can confirm we are investigating an allegation of fraud that was made to us in February. Police are investigating it currently and we can’t discuss it further.

“It’s been assigned to officers and they are talking to people and gathering information.”

Contracts worth over £156,442 are required to be advertised in the EU’s official journal so interested companies can tender for them.

It’s alleged this process was bypassed when Westminster’s parking contract was given to the firm NSL.

Westminster scrapped free roadside motorcycle parking bays last August. The fraud investigation was launched after a complaint was lodged by campaigners opposing the new £1-a-day charge.

Warren Djangoly, Chairman of No to the Bike Parking Tax, said: “We investigated the implementation costs only to discover violations of EU procurement [rules].”

Westminster City Council refused to comment.

An NSL spokesman said the allegations were “nonsense”.

He said EU rules allowed contracts to be passed from one company to another subject to a clause in the contract. “The contract with Westminster does, of course, have such a clause,” he added.