Dacorum will pay one firm up to £94,534 to finish rewiring the Water Gardens North car park, with no competitive tender. The call-in deadline is 4 September.
Dacorum Borough Council will spend up to £94,534.30 plus VAT finishing the rewiring of the Water Gardens North car park in Hemel Hempstead, and it has decided not to put the work out to tender.
The Portfolio Holder for Environment, Councillor Robin Bromham, signed the decision on 27 August. It sets aside the council’s own Commissioning and Procurement Standing Orders so the contract can go straight to B-A-R Electrical and Mechanical Services, the firm that did the first phase (decision PH-029-26).
The second phase covers:
- replacement of all lower-level lighting in the car park
- replacement of the conduits carrying it
- completing the outstanding recommendations from the electrical inspection, so the council holds a clean certificate
Those same circuits also feed the council’s CCTV in and around the car park. The decision record states that without the work the circuits “could fail and render the CCTV inoperable”.
How it got here
An Electrical Installation Condition Report on the car park came back unsatisfactory. In November 2025 the council authorised a first direct award to the same firm for essential health and safety work on the electrical installation, so that an Electrical Installation Certificate could be issued. That work is finished and the certificate has been issued.
Phase I cost £40,419.90 plus VAT. Further work was identified while it was being carried out, which is what Phase II now covers. Across the two phases the council has committed £134,954.20 plus VAT to the electrics in one car park.
Why there was no tender
The report sets out three options: do nothing, run a full tender, or make a direct award. It recommends the third.
Doing nothing was rejected on risk. The report describes Water Gardens North as “the Council’s most used car park in the borough” and the biggest single source of income in its parking estate, and says that not doing the works “increases the risk of fire that would be catastrophic for the Council reputationally and financially”.
A tender was rejected on time. The council says it would have to bring in outside expertise simply to write the specification before it could run the process.
On value for money, the report argues that because the same contractor did Phase I, officers “have reassurance in the price provided and therefore a lower contingency is required”.
The report also warns what happens if the work is left: the same faults would be flagged at the next inspection, and further problems could mean “more expensive repairs or part/whole of the car park having to be decommissioned in the future while they are carried out”.
The governance trail
- Commercial Board approved the approach on 16 July 2026
- the decision sheet reached member support on 19 August 2026
- the decision was published on 27 August 2026
- the call-in deadline is 4 September 2026
- it comes into force on 5 September 2026 if not called in
It is recorded as a key decision and is subject to call-in. The call-in count stood at zero when the page was checked on 30 August. The Deputy Section 151 Officer’s comment says the contract costs are in line with the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy assumptions and will be met from existing approved capital budgets, so this is not new money. The Deputy Monitoring Officer confirms the Portfolio Holder has the power to set aside standing orders under the Commissioning and Procurement Standing Orders 2025 to 2030.
What it means for you
No closure has been announced. The decision is about paying for the work, not about shutting the car park, and the council gives no start or finish date for Phase II. The risk it names is the opposite: that leaving the electrics could eventually force part or all of the car park out of use.
If you use it, the practical position is unchanged. The lower deck takes entries from 6am to 6pm with exit any time, and the maximum stay is 10 hours. The upper deck is permit holders only Monday to Friday, and open to everyone from 6am to 6pm at weekends (Dacorum Borough Council). Both decks charge £2 for up to an hour and £6 for the full 10 hours. Every Hemel Hempstead tariff is on our parking page.
If you want the decision looked at again, the route is a call-in by councillors, and the deadline is 4 September. Dacorum’s democratic services team is on 01442 228209.
Sources: Dacorum Borough Council decision PH-029-26 and its Portfolio Holder decision record sheet, published 27 August 2026; Dacorum’s car park map and car park charges, checked 30 August 2026.
Have your say