PACER Awards: Rewarding great annual parking reports

North East Lincolnshire Council’s parking report wins top prize at annual PACER Awards

North East Lincolnshire Council won the Overall Winner trophy at PATROL’s 2022 Promoting Awareness of Civil Enforcement through Reporting (PACER) Awards.

The competition recognises well structured, accessible reports that utilise the best available communication mediums. It forms part of PATROL’s commitment to promoting best practice in public information to increase understanding of traffic management objectives.

Laura Padden, director of PATROL, said: “On behalf of the joint committee, I’d like to congratulate North East Lincolnshire and all the other winners on their hugely impressive reports this year. The quality, creativity and scope of reports continues to get better, inspiring others to excel in their communications with the public, with yet more new authorities in the mix this time round. PATROL believes an annual report provides an opportunity to set out clearly and transparently the ‘what, why and how’ of an authority’s civil enforcement activities. In doing so, annual reports can provide the vital context around the traffic management objectives that lie behind enforcement, which are ultimately in place to meet the needs of residents, businesses and visitors.”

The team from North East Lincolnshire were presented with their award together with this year’s other award winners during a reception at the House of Commons on 12 July, hosted by Huw Merriman, MP for Bexhill and Battle and chair of the Transport Committee. The event was also attended by Transport Committee members Simon Jupp, MP for East Devon, and Ruth Cadbury, MP for Brentford and Isleworth.

2022 PACER Awards

What the jury said about the winners...

The PACER Award winners were selected by an independent Review Group that included Lorraine Martin, parking services manager at Cheshire East Council, the winning authority at last year’s awards, Jo Abbott, former communications manager at the RAC Foundation, and transport consultant David Leibling.

North East Lincolnshire
Overall Winner
“North East Lincolnshire’s report is attractively presented, easy to read and makes great use of statistics, graphics and imagery. It also features lots of engaging information putting the department’s work in context, content on new services, as well as useful guidance and links. It really is a standout entry and complete package, with lots of local character.”

Dacorum Borough Council
Best for Customer Service
“Dacorum’s report really puts the customer at the heart of its content, from a robust background on the service and recent statistics, to a section that identifies the different parts of a parking tariff sign – full of practical and useful information.”

North Essex Parking Partnership
Best Use of Design
“The NEPP entry really stands out with a consistent and engaging design throughout, and great use of imagery to ‘bring to life’ and present information in a manner suitable for the content across the board. The report’s visual identity is matched on the service website.”

Gloucestershire County Council
Best for Innovation and New Services
“Gloucestershire’s report dedicates lots of content to new and recent developments, from projects relating to electric vehicles and active travel, to how the team responded to the challenge of COVID-19, all vibrantly presented with good use of design and graphics.”

Hampshire County Council
Best for Finance and Statistics
“Hampshire’s report makes great use of design to display, in a captivating, visually appealing way, a wide range of statistics relating to the operation and performance of the service.”

Devon County Council
Best Concise Report
“The ‘less is more’ format to Devon’s report provides an excellent round-up of the service and team’s activities for the year in short, digestible sections, complemented by graphics that don’t distract from the content.”

East Sussex County Council
Best Use of Digital Channels
“East Sussex has produced a web-based report that features clear navigation and concise, digestible sections, including well-formatted financial figures and statistics. The online report is accompanied by a fantastic video in the introduction, presented by Cllr Claire Dowling, lead member for transport and environment.”

PATROL

The PATROL (Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London) joint committee comprises over 300 local authorities in England (outside London) and Wales. The principal function of the joint committee is to make provision for independent adjudication in respect of appeals against penalties issued for traffic contraventions by local authorities and charging authorities in England (outside London) and Wales.
www.patrol-uk.info

Traffic Penalty Tribunal

Adjudication is delivered through the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT). TPT adjudicators are wholly independent lawyers appointed with the consent of the Lord Chancellor and are supported by a small team of administrative staff. The adjudicators decide appeals against penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued by authorities for parking, bus lane, moving traffic, Clean Air Zone and littering from vehicles contraventions. The adjudicators also decide appeals arising from road user charging enforcement, including from the Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing, Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee Bridge Crossings, as well as the Durham Road User Charge Zone.
www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk