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News - Sunderland Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More: "More NCP suspensions threatened
TWO more parking attendants could be suspended and three senior members of staff investigated after an undercover TV probe.
A Sunderland council meeting heard that six NCP attendants have already been suspended after the BBC documentary, which showed workers making racist comments and jokes about disabled people.
NCP bosses apologised during last night's meeting – held to examine whether there were grounds for the council to terminate its contract with the firm – for the 'unacceptable' behaviour of staff.
NCP promised a shake-up of the service to restore faith in parking in the city, but accused the BBC documentary of being factually flawed.
The meeting at Sunderland civic centre was told that a further two members of staff, one off sick and one on holiday, could be suspended on their return to work.
NCP chief executive Bob Macnaughton called the BBC Inside Out programme 'unbalanced' 'unfair' and 'prejudicial'.
Ken Hanslip, leading the company's internal investigation, accused the documentary of being edited to give a false impression of what was said.
The former police sergeant added that the claims made by attendants of 'torturing Villette Road', targeting Bangladeshis and disabled people, was just 'bravado'.
He said he had looked at internal and police evidence as well as studying the programme in depth and interviewed each attendant implicated for several hours and could not find anything to substantiate the claims.
However, he added that NCP was taking the allegations made in the BBC documentary very seriously.
He said: 'Six parking attendants identified have been suspended. Consideration around a senior parking attendant, a consideration around a supervisor and consideration around a contract manager will go through investigative process I mentioned earlier.'
He added that one attendant was due back from long-term sick on November 3 and another was away on annual leave, but both would be interviewed on their return.
Mr Macnaughton promised a number of measures to improve NCP's service in Sunderland, including diversity training; fitting attendants hand-held ticketing machines with GPS systems to track where they were; scrutinising the company's recruitment process; bolstering management in the city and improving attendants uniforms and working environment to boost their self esteem.
A decision on the continuation of NCP's contract to enforce parking in Sunderland will be made by the council's cabinet after further investigations have taken place.
17 October 2006"