Westminster is set to “re-align” the way it runs parking services, with two new style contracts to be split between technology and “people and resources”. The council plans to re-structure its outsourcing model when its current contracts expire next year. The parking and CCTV contract with NSL Services ends in June 2014 while the back office processing contract with Serco ends in November 2014. The new structure will allow potential contract savings of nearly £3m...

Several thousand parking and highways professionals gathered at the NEC in Birmingham last month to check out Parkex and Traffex 2013. A wide range of systems and services were on show, and NEC hosted events including the ITS UK conference and workshops organised by the British Parking Association. The Parking Review stand played host to the Olympic and Paralympic torches during Parkex 2013. The emblems of the London 2012 Games were provided by LOCOG Transport and multi-disciplinary consultancy...

Paul Caddy has joined bailiff enforcement and debt collection firm Phoenix after 13 years as a director at Marston Group. He will take on a broad role at Phoenix, which will include testing the firm’s internal and external operational processes and procedural systems. He will work closely with the company’s directors to address specific areas of weakness within the business. Caddy is the current president of civil enforcement association CIVEA and is an industry representative on...

Simon Wilson has joined the board of APCOA Parking (UK) in the position of operations director. Wilson joins the company from Cushman & Wakefield LLP, where he directed the real estate firm’s European facilities management (FM) operations. Prior to that he worked in both strategic and operational roles for Johnson Controls, McKinsey & Company, Linklaters and Foster Wheeler Energy, after initially serving in the British Army. At APCOA Wilson will be responsible for optimising...

Mike Palmer has joined APCOA Parking (UK) as head of technical projects following a career in both project and customer relationship management.  After studying as a mechanical engineer, Palmer joined Mars Electronics in 1986, where he worked for nine years on coin and bank note recognition systems. He then took up an operational management role with Scipher − a management buy-out vehicle for Thorn EMI’s Central Research Laboratories and TSSI Systems. Palmer was then contracted...

The number of cyclists injured after being hit or trying to avoid a suddenly opened car door has risen to 593 in 2011, up from 468 in 2009, a rise of nearly a quarter in two years. The figures revealed in a House of Commons written answer by transport minister Steven Hammond show that in 2011 one cyclist was killed, and of the 593 injuries to cyclists, 92 were serious, with 501 slight injuries. Two years previously, 55 cyclists were seriously injured while 413 received injuries described as...

Parking enforcement contractor NSL has named Sandra Cove and Yasar Mohamad as its Employees of the Year. Each civil enforcement officer (CEO) received £1,000 from NSL chief executive Mark Underwood. Civil enforcement officer Sandra Cove, who works on behalf of Westminster City Council, was part of the successful Olympic Route Network (ORN) team, which controlled parking restrictions so effectively on the route. Often working additional hours to cover staff at short notice, she was...

West Yorkshire Police has lost its appeal over the costs of policing home matches at Leeds United’s Elland Road stadium. The Court of Appeal told the force that they were not entitled to charge the club for policing outside land owned or controlled by the club. This follows a change in policy by West Yorkshire Police and ACPO for the 2009/2010 season, which meant that instead of charging for policing at the stadium, West Yorkshire Police sought to charge for an “extended...

The Olympic Games and a match-day car park used by fans of both Liverpool and Everton were among the winners at the British Parking Awards, which were announced in London on Friday 8 March. The competition, which is now in its 12th year, is organised by Parking Review and Landor LINKS to recognise and celebrate the best in parking management, design and innovation. The Olympic legacy was in evidence during the ceremony, as LOCOG Transport won the Partnership Award for its work to ensure that...

Cutting edge technologies, the problems of congestion in our town centres, increasingly complex legislation and renewed efforts to boost the accessibility and appeal of High Street shops have all helped to put a new spotlight on to the parking services teams within town halls across the country. It’s fair to say that the professionalism of today’s civil enforcement teams bears little resemblance to years gone by. Much of this reflects how parking teams are benefitting from the...

Cornwall Council has branded a Liskeard barber a safety risk after he warned motorists about civil enforcement officers (CEOs) by using a megaphone. The council has put Andy Blackwall (pictured) on a “cautionary list” of people they see as a threat to their workers’ health and safety. With the loud hailer emitting a siren sound, Blackwall repeatedly called out “Traffic warden” when he spotted a CEO.  The council said: “The cautionary contacts list is...

Mirsad Bakalovic has become new head of parking services at Tower Hamlets, taking over from John Chiltern who has retired after seven years in the post. Bakalovic moves to the east London borough after an eventful five-year stint at Croydon council where he spearheaded a business-driven approach to parking services, which garnered several awards. He was named Croydon council’s manager of the year in 2011 and bagged four trophies at Parking Review’s British Parking Awards, including...

Two south London boroughs have agreed to share their parking services following the successful implementation of a shared library service. The shared parking service, which starts in March, will cover all aspects of parking, including on-street and off-street parking operations, management of enforcement, and appeals against penalty charge notices. Bromley’s Ben Stephens is the head of shared parking service and the back office will be based in Bromley. The new arrangement is expected to...

A cash injection of £500,000 is being provided by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to help tackle the town’s parking hotspots. The funding is in addition to the annual £141,000 budget for borough-wide parking improvement programmes. A spokeswoman for the Conservative controlled council, said: “The money would be used to provide extra parking bays in residential areas. The additional £500,000 for parking was funded from additional resources’ identified...

Kenneth Grange, designer of the InterCity 125 train, the Kenwood Chef food blender and Britain’s first parking meter was knighted in the New Year’s Honours list. Grange, who is now a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, also designed angle-poise lamps, Parker pens, razors for Wilkinson Sword, the Adshel bus shelter and the TX1 London taxi. Justin McGurk of The Guardian wrote: “Grange brought the same thoughtfulness and everyday elegance to the street furniture that...

The level and quality of disabled parking provision and access arrangements at several sites operated by National Car Parks (NCP) were criticised in The Cabrini Report produced by Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) and Unity Law. The parking operator pointed out the first time it became aware of the report was via an email from Parking Review, and had not been contacted by DMUK regarding its planned research on this subject, or regarding its findings. Looking at the report’s criticisms of NCP...

Disabled people face many barriers when travelling, whether as passengers on public transport, planes or as drivers using car parks and the street. One constant source of frustration disabled people face is alerting the operators of car parks, rail stations and other facilities that they require assistance. Even the provision of help-points or voice-call buttons at parking barriers or pay stations is not a solution as many disabled people may be able to drive but face problems interacting with...

Parking is a subject that seems to fascinate television programme makers. Over the years we have had fly-on-the-wall series such as The Clampers, undercover reports such as Confessions of a Parking Attendant and most recently Parking Mad, a documentary about people who devote their time to challenging parking tickets. The BBC film, broadcast last month, adopted a rather light-hearted tone, with Alison Steadman’s softly spoken narration and a continuous musical score. Yet the film was...

Like many parking professionals, I sat up with bated breath and watched Parking Mad, the first mainstream parking documentary for some time. Surprisingly, I thought that the documentary was reasonably balanced, which is as it should be from the BBC. However, there were a few exceptions. Firstly, there was the whole issue around Barry Moss. It was kind of sad to see somebody paying the price of an obsession. The parking enforcement system was never intended to cause hardship such as the...