Decision details

Many customers choose to use credit or debit cards in our car parks. We require a third party to process these transactions for us, taking a small fee for every transaction. We intend to undertake a full procurement for a card payment merchant services in 2026. In the meantime we are entering into a short term framework for a maximum of 12 months to continue providing this service whilst we prepare a procurement process.

Option 2 has been discounted. A mini competition was undertaken in the Summer of 2025 indicating very few providers in the market for this service. We need to ensure customers are still able to use credit/ debit cards for payments in the short term. Entering into a temporary framework agreement enables us to start the procurement process whilst still having a service in place. We expect to be able to complete this in late 2026.
Option 3 has been discounted as we have an incumbent provider with no agreement in place. This puts us at risk of uncontrolled increases in transactions fees or withdrawal of service.

Option 1 - Enter into a framework agreement with our incumbent provider
Option 2 - Begin a full procurement exercise
Option 3 - Do nothing