Council asked to explain traffic camera contract

South Dublin County Council is to be asked to explain the award of a contract for traffic monitoring cameras, to a company which submitted the highest tender in an open competition.

International electronics company Siemens and its Dublin-based affiliate, Traffic Solutions Limited, were awarded the contract to supply 58 new traffic monitoring cameras at a cost in excess of €1.2 million, a figure which was about double that submitted by other competitors.

The cameras are linked online to an automatic number plate recognition system (ANPR) to provide the capability to identify a vehicle by reading its number plate, and monitor its progress as it passes other cameras along the roads network.

South Dublin County Council already has 28 ANPR cameras in place, in association with Dublin City Council.

These cameras were also purchased from Siemens/Traffic Solutions Limited.

South Dublin County Council has stressed that while the cameras monitor a vehicle's speed, the information gathered is strictly for management of traffic flows, and has no enforcement uses.

The new cameras will give the council the capability of monitoring traffic from Newlands Cross to the Kildare county boundary and when linked to traffic signals will allow traffic controllers to speed up or slow down volumes of traffic.

It is the ambition of the council to place this information in "real time" on the internet so potential motorists can accurately estimate their journey times.

Developmental aspects of the technology include links with Dublin Bus to provide real-time information on bus arrival times and duration of travel compared with the private car. It could also be used to spot stolen cars and collect tolls in barrier-free toll situations.

While the technology has been broadly welcomed, members of the council have expressed concern at the latest tender award, given its distance in price from competitors.

The council's strategic transportation committee chairman Stanley Laing of Fine Gael told The Irish Times it was "a matter of serious concern" that the tender was awarded to the highest bidder, and he would be seeking an explanation from officials at the next committee meeting in early September.

Councillor Laing said the committee would not always be briefed on "each individual contract" but he added that in this case an explanation on price, "presuming all other things were equal", would be helpful.

Fellow councillor Therese Ridge told The Irish Times she believed there was "probably a very good reason" for the award and she expected "to be properly briefed" at the September meeting. A council spokesman said he couldn't comment on price.

Asked if they had in fact submitted the highest tender Brian Lee of Dublin Traffic Solutions said: "Yes, I think so." But he said the award was also considered on the specification of equipment supplied and the ability of the system to secure the desired information.

Meanwhile, Opposition transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell has called for some standardisation by local authorities of the systems used, "particularly considering the sums of money involved".

However she added the use of such systems by local authorities "showed up the poor performance of the Government in its inability to roll out its own speed monitoring programme for almost a decade.

"It beggars belief that local authorities across the country are now doing on their own bat, what the Government has been unable to do for 10 years - which is to run out a country-wide system capable of monitoring vehicles speeds."