Countdown to British Parking Awards

One week until presentation on 11 March

The British Parking Awards 2011 will mark a decade of celebrating excellence in the parking sector.  The short list for the British Parking Awards 2011 has been unveiled. The winners of the annual competition, organised by Parking Review and sponsored by Equita, will be revealed by Hugh Dennis, star of Outnumbered and Mock the Week, at the InterContinental, Park Lane, on Friday 11 March.

The shortlisting process has involved all 80 entrants being assessed and discussed by a panel of judges drawn from across the parking sector. Awards judges have been touring England, Scotland and Wales to visit sites shortlisted for the Best New Car Park and Safer Parking Scheme Best Refurbishment Award. Meanwhile, many follow-up questions have been asked of shortlisted entrants in the other categories.

There is a growing sense of anticipation among the local authorities and individuals who have been short listed for what will be the tenth anniversary awards.

www.britishparkingawards.co.uk

The contenders in their own words

The parking teams who have been shortlisted talk about their operations, projects and colleagues ahead of the big event on 11 March

The Enforcement Award

Sponsored by The Enforcers

Croydon Parking Services: Enforcing our streets with exceptional performance
Croydon’s enforcement team has extended its remit to blue badge enforcement, working in partnership with Lambeth in order to share experience and to train its staff.
Head of parking services Mirsad Bakalovic says: “Many enforcement staff have received NVQs, which has led directly to the highest performance rates the council has seen – the cancellation rate has dropped by over 5%. Through surveys we were able to see customer satisfaction increase for our enforcement operation, which was particularly impressive when taking into account the nature of the service.”

London Borough of Hackney: Bailiff contract
The London Borough of Hackney has developed a new style of bailiff contract to improve the overall performance of its debt recovery operation.

Hackney’s head of parking services, Seamus Adams, says: “To achieve this the contract had to embrace partnership working between the council and its contractors. The council committed itself to the contract and also be accountable for its performance. The new contract has resulted in greater accountability, improved recovery rates and customer focus. The contract has built-in flexibility so that the ability to change throughout the life of the contract is easily achieved.”

To assist improved performance, the council has made the contract totally transparent and is sharing all performance statistics with all parties concerned. The higher performing bailiff companies are rewarded with an increasing share of warrants. Since its introduction, Hackney had seen significant improvements in the way the contract operates. In the first eight months of the 2010-11 financial year the bailiff contract has collected 20% more income than the whole of the previous year.

London Borough of Hounslow & NSL Services: CCTV team
The Hounslow CCTV team devised and delivered a new service from scratch within tight deadlines to industry-leading standards regarding increased CCTV public space surveillance.

Hounslow’s CCTV manager Terry Prince says: “The team is a real partnership between the borough and its contractor, NSL Services Group. The team has worked across multiple stakeholder groups to engage and enlist the support of groups around the community, resulting in a real sense of stakeholder involvement in the fight against crime. “NSL has managed the team in a flexible manner. What sets the team apart from other CCTV operations is the multi-skilling capability of the operatives and the cross-over between community safety and traffic enforcement. The vastly improved CCTV service has led to intelligent policing within the borough, resulting in lower crime and drug-related issues. The team is sharing good practice across the industry and taken a proactive approach to engaging with the public.”

Marston Group: A model of excellence for ethical debt enforcement
Marston Group, working in partnership with Isle of Wight?Council, has devised an innovative, positive, financially inclusive and ethical method of debt enforcement on the island. Marston director Alan Clark says: “The result has been excellent recovery rates and outstanding customer service. There has been improved team working with debt agencies who, historically, have tended to work against the local authority and its bailiffs. “The Isle of Wight project has built on the openness and transparency of Marston’s Optimising Your Recovery workshops.”

VINCI Park & Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council: Providing an extra pair of eyes and a helping hand in Calderdale
VINCI Park has been providing on and off-street parking enforcement services to Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council since March 2010. It is a four-year contract, with a possible two-year extension. The large and diverse borough of Calderdale covers 140 square miles. The entire borough is designated as a Civil Enforcement Area and contains 1,200 roads with parking restrictions and 70 car parks, of which 40 charge for parking.

VINCI Parks managing director Mark Evans says: “The major successes of the contract to date include a reduction of PCN error rates to 1.42%, and the establishment of a number of local partnerships to ensure that VINCI Park staff are seen as a key part of the community. A successful PR campaign with the client has helped parking to be seen in a more positive light across the borough. We strive to introduce innovations, look at cost savings, and work with our clients on different ways of doing things.”

The Environment Award

Croydon Parking Services: Croydon extends its commitment to the environment
Croydon Council Parking Services has implemented a number of schemes to discourage the use of cars in the borough and also to increase the take-up of reusable energy sources. The council aims to reduce the effect of CO2 emissions on the environment as set out by the government’s climate change objectives in National Indicator 186.

Croydon has reduced the number of staff-owned vehicles being used on a daily basis for council business by piloting a joint venture with car club operator StreetCar. It is also investigating rolling out the StreetCar venture to include the general public. The use of electric vehicles is being encouraged by providing charge points in council car parks. Head of parking services Mirsad Bakalovic says: “The environmental cost of parking machines is being reduced by replacing those run from the National Grid with solar-powered machines. Cashless payment systems have also been introduced to reduce dependence on mains-powered machines.”

Liberty Services: Complete Environmental Management
Liberty is implementing an environmental strategy that goes beyond the launch of a single product or service. In recognition that parking and printing both have unique responsibilities to the environment, Liberty has dedicated itself to mitigating the effects of both. Parking enforcement operates in an area that accounts for 23% of all carbon emissions in the world. As car manufacturers strive for more economically efficient vehicles parking enforcement needs to be seen in the context of joined-up transportation thinking.

Paper manufacture and printing use large amounts of energy, as well as chlorine bleaching and chemical inks. Liberty’s chairman Gavin Reddin has committed the company to achieving high level accreditation for its work in environmental impact reduction and the design of its products to reduce energy use. “We will provide clients with the tools to assess and reduce the environmental impact of their business on a job-by-job or contract basis using tools developed with the British Printing Industries Federation,” he says. “Liberty will also engage staff, suppliers and customers in this strategy at the centre of our commercial offering.”

TfL-SELTRANS/Southern Railway: South Croydon carbon negative station car park
The aim of the project is to extend, refurbish and redrain the station car park while promoting responsible car use and providing options for modal shift. Access to the station has been improved, as has travel information on all transport modes.

TfL-SELTRANS sustainability consultant Andy Blake says: “The car park has now been future-proofed via the provision of free electric charging points. Disabled parking at the station has been improved and extended and the site has attained British Transport Police’s Secure Station status. The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers was involved in tidying up the car park fringe with help from youngsters on the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme. All this was delivered without increasing the car parking charge.”

Winchester City Council & Hampshire County Council: South Winchester Park & Ride
South Winchester Park & Ride, located at Junction 11 of the M3, is the third P&R site to serve the historic city. The site, which opened in spring 2010, was developed by Hampshire County Council and is managed by Winchester City Council.

“Our strategy has been to intercept vehicles coming from the south of Winchester and provide a substantial discount on city centre parking — all-day parking costs £3,” says Winchester’s parking manager Richard?Hein. “The facility is providing not just facilities for 865 cars to help alleviate congestion, but also gives careful consideration to the local habitat by providing facilities for bats, reptiles and dormice. The site also features the first electric vehicle charging points in Hampshire.”

Living Streets Award

Sponsored by APCOA Parking

Croydon Council
Croydon delivered a large number of improvements to the borough over the past year. These included an overhaul of the CPZ strategy by taking a holistic approach to new CPZs, including the way the council consults with residents and responds to customer requests for new CPZs.

Mirsad Bakalovic, head of parking services, says: “The redevelopment of Purley High Street has helped ease congestion and traffic flow around one of the council’s busiest car parks. In addition, the council has helped disabled residents and visitors to the borough by extending the lease to a car park, which is for the exclusive use of blue badge holders. This car park also received a Safer Parking Scheme Park Mark.”

Southwark Council & Project Centre: Transforming Rye Lane
Rye Lane in Peckham is an example of how highways are changing to meet the demands of pedestrians and cyclists. The number of cyclists in London doubled between 2000 and 2008, and Southwark was determined to find a solution to the increasing number of collisions between cyclists and pedestrians on Rye Lane.

“Southwark wanted to build on the success of its Walworth Road project where residents and stakeholders played an important role in designing their high street,” says Mark Bland, transportation and parking director at the Project Centre.

After consulting residents, traders, cycling and walking groups, emergency services and bus operators, it became apparent that there was widespread support for a contra-flow cycle lane, not just from cyclists but from residents, traders and pedestrian groups as well. Bland says: “Initial accident data shows that within the designated area there have been no reported accidents and the number of tickets to cyclists has dropped by 70%.”

Traders now have new loading facilities and the number of PCNs for parking and loading offences has dropped by 23%, which has the effect of putting £36,720 back into the local economy, says Bland.

Best New Car Park

BAM Construction: HealthVision, Swansea
The Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board is promoting a major redevelopment of Morriston Hospital, Swansea, in order to deliver improved clinical services and facilities for the 21st Century. The existing car parking provision at Morriston hospital was arranged in an ad hoc fashion where space allowed and had essentially developed as the hospital expanded, causing many problems.

Nicola Hewes, associate director of architect Nightingale Associates, says: “A lack of car parking adjacent to hospital departments were leading to patients missing their appointments. There were also illegal parking issues, which caused dangers due to the volume of traffic for cars, ambulances and commercial vehicles that need to use hospital roads.”

BAM Construction Supply Chain set about delivering a solution to address its client’s requirements. The works commenced in January 2009 and were completed two weeks ahead of schedule. The project was split into two phases, primarily to ensure that the existing helipad, located within the site of the new car park, was not taken out of action.

NCP & Bolton MBC Partnership: Topp Way, Bolton
NCP and Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council has formed a partnership which has built two multi-storey car parks — Topp Way and Deane Road — to facilitate the regeneration of the town centre and opening of the new Bolton Community and Sixth?Form colleges.

“Whilst Deane Road is a relatively straightforward design, Topp Way embodies a more radical approach, which required major highway alterations to enable easy access and egress,” says NCP’s marketing manager Alison Sams.

Topp Way also accommodates new facilities for the town centre, including a Shopmobility service, disabled changing room facilities, electric vehicle charging points, a retail unit and town centre control room.

Q-Park: Rockingham Street, Sheffield
Q-Park’s Rockingham Street car park is a 531-space multi-storey whose design provides a bright, open and visible space, enhancing the car park’s security and safety. The façade uses green glass panels of differing shades to create a ‘green flow’ effect when light penetrates inside. This creates different appearance by day and night. “The use of angled parking bays provide easier parking,” says Q-Park’s UK managing director Adam Bidder. “It features a circular ramp at the narrowest end to compensate for the change in ground levels.”

There are 50 charging points for electric cars, plus cycle parking spaces.  All the parking decks and pedestrian lobbies have lighting that is linked to movement sensors, helping to keep electricity use to a minimum.

Exceptional Customer Service Award

Sponsored by Alpha Parking

APCOA Parking: Parking shop refurbishment, Brent
Brent’s original parking shop was once a bank. It was very run down, providing a dark and intimidating environment. The shop served drivers from three counters, including one disabled users window. Chris Pullen, APCOA’s managing director, says: “There were constantly queues going out of the door and the situation was stressful for both customers and staff — customers arrived at the counters disgruntled and tired of waiting.”

APCOA has extended the parking shop, allowing it to provide five counters as well as a writing area for customers to complete forms before being served. “This arrangement has saved time for customers and staff, reducing queues and waiting,” says Pullen. “A new separate entrance has been provided for employees, meaning they do not have to walk-through waiting customers.”

Croydon Parking Services
Croydon Parking Services has worked with the council’s Customer Strategy and Development Team to deliver services such as reducing the time taken to respond to customers to less than 24 hours of receipt of a query. Collaborative working across the council has ascertained customer needs. Parking staff attend events in their own time in order to promote the council’s services and to gain feedback from customers.

Parking Services has introduced cashless parking across the borough to improve the customer experience by offering a wider choice and flexibility of payment options. Parking Services has also introduced the ‘Companion Badge’ as a result of feedback from blue badge users who were fearful of the theft of their badges when displaying them in their vehicles. The parking team regularly takes part in mystery shopping exercises, and it is involved in Partners in Parking’s mystery shopper initiative.

Head of parking services Mirsad Bakalovic says: “Parking Services wants to ensure that our staff are able to help and respond to any queries. We have shown this commitment to our customers by putting 52 of our staff through NVQs, many in customer services, and having staff attend bailiff workshops to understand the service better."

Empark UK
Empark has been operating the entire public parking estate at Stansted Airport since October 2008. Through re-training staff in line with the standards and procedures developed by its parent company, Empark UK has made a step-change in the level of customer service being delivered.

Empark’s international director Luis Blanco says: “Positive feedback is frequently received and complaints by customers are now below 0.01% of total transactions.”

Since the beginning of the contract Empark has had to contend with difficult situations, such as the disruption to passenger journeys due to the Icelandic volcano eruption, severe weather condition and an August Bank Holiday fire on the long-stay car park. Empathising with the needs of passengers returning to their burnt-out cars, the team organised taxi transfers home and bought snacks and sweets to occupy children whilst their parents completed the necessary paperwork.

London Stansted Airport adds: “The staff response was fantastic. They were calm, professional and a real credit to Empark.”

Young Parking Professional Award

Sponsored by Q-Park

Ashley Brandon, parking fraud investigations manager, London Borough of Lambeth

Ashley Brandon has recently been promoted to head up Lambeth’s Parking Fraud Investigations Team (PFIT), where she has worked as an investigator since 2009. after starting her parking career at the London Borough of Wandsworth.

“Ashley is a dedicated and ambitious young woman, who throws herself into every task set before her and won’t settle for anything but the best,” says her Lambeth ?PFIT colleague Steven Davidson. “Her career started in the humble surroundings of the post-room, scanning parking permits onto a document management system. She is now one of the industry’s leading parking fraud investigation officers.

“Ashley’s commitment to her role and ongoing desire to expand her skills and knowledge base illustrates that she is set for a long and successful career within the parking industry,” says Davidson.

Zakki Ghauri, senior parking manager, Croydon Parking Services
Zakki Ghauri has achieved a great deal in a relatively short time. After building a solid knowledge base at Wandsworth Borough Council’s parking services, he moved to Croydon where his potential was identified. Ghauri progressed very quickly through the ranks and he currently manages the policy and performance team. He has been responsible for a number of high profile projects such as the introduction of cashless parking to the borough, an innovative warrant redistribution project for bailiffs and the production of the annual Traffic Management Act Annual Report.

Head of parking services Mirsad Bakalovic says: “He is very well versed in the business aspects of parking, as well as being highly competent in his IT skills. He is very well respected by his peers. His positive work ethic and commitment to the business should make him one of the leading parking managers of the future.”

Fraser Jones, deputy parking manager, Gunwharf Quays Management
Fraser Jones is deputy parking manager at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, the flagship car park in the Land Securities portfolio. He has been in the parking industry for six years, since the age of 21. He has has worked his way up from a weekend assistant to controlling 12 staff and a parking business which turns over in excess of £4m per year,

Jones achievements include introducing new parking procedures and training at Gunwharf Quays which have been adopted by Land Securities across its parking portfolio. A member of the IPP, Jones is passionate about the industry and has started a blog — www.parkingexcellence.co.uk — in his own time to promote open discussion about issues affecting the industry. He is also currently producing a guide on delivering excellent customer service within the parking industry and hopes to share this as an open document, promoted though the parking press.

Peter Emery, centre director at Gunwharf Quays, says: “Fraser’s drive and motivation shows that he loves his job. His passion and commitment to the industry is exceptional.”

Melissa Payne, parking appeals supervisor, Slough Borough Council
At the tender age of 26, Melissa Payne has achieved a lot in her short career in parking. In her role as parking appeals supervisor she has made a success of developing others to maintain best practice for Slough Borough Council’s parking appeals service. The number of processing errors have been reduced through training of her staff. She has developed her team’s letter writing skills in responding to challenges, which has resulted in an increased number of customers paying during the discount period.

Payne manages the processing side of the council’s contract with VINCI Park to ensure a strong relationship has been built, which has resulted in the number of cancellations of PCNs decreasing.

The Marketing Award

Sponsored by Local Transport Today

Croydon Parking Services: Understanding needs and tailoring outcomes for customers
Croydon Council is constantly trying to gain a better insight into what its customers want. It has used the Mosaic Profiling market research tool to help understand them. On-street, online and postal surveys have been used to explore specific issues, which have been addressed by a number of initiatives. The theft of blue badges from vehicles led to the development and introduction of a ‘companion badge’. The misuse of blue badges led to a borough-wide crackdown on blue badge fraud and a number of prosecutions.

Head of parking services Mirsad Bakalovic says: “In order to invigorate the local economy and businesses, free parking was introduced to draw more shoppers into district centres. To cater to the needs of both businesses operating across the borough and residents who often use P&D bays an All?Zones?Permit has been introduced. To promote awareness of the All Zones Permit a ‘Golden Ticket’ competition was run.”

Cobalt Telephone Technologies: Against the odds – from underdog to brand winner
In December 2007 RingGo was rejected as the future phone parking provider of choice for the Westminster-led PiP partnership. “Although shocked by this loss, Cobalt decided that the RingGo brand, the quality of the product and the people behind it, had to be promoted far more effectively in future,” says marketing manager Anne Snelson.

To that end, a three-phase marketing campaign was planned to play out over 36 months. The aim of the campaign was to establish RingGo with a national presence, innovative, customer-focused and professional. Snelson says: “This has been achieved using a lively and unstuffy style, with its effectiveness dependent more on creativity, cheekiness and verve, rather than big budget spend.”

NCP Brand & Creative Team: The NCP rebrand
NCP is the UK’s largest parking provider. However, its image has been little more than an iconic logo. The rebrand project was devised to change this, which put the customer back at the heart of communications via a new customer promise, brand style and tone of voice. NCP started by talking to its customers — the largest piece of parking customer research ever commissioned. “We listened to our customers and identified what makes NCP different from our competitors,” says NCP’s marketing manager Alison Sams. “We used this to develop a new style and tone of voice, which speaks to our customers in terms of benefits and how was can make parking easier for them.”

NCP has introduced a number of digital tools, comprising new iPhone application and website. Both these hold full information for NCP car parks, as well as a route planner which enabled customers to plan a journey to an NCP. This gave driving directions to the car park and walking directions to their destination. “This is a first in the market,” says Sams.

Over 548,000 customers have visited the website since its launch and the route planner has been used over 681,000 times. Over 35,000 iPhone apps have been downloaded. This achieved number 2 in the App Store for navigational apps and was within the top 250 apps from a total of 350,000. “Response to the rebrand is positive, with customers and spontaneous awareness rising from 54% to 57%.”

Innovation Award

Sponsored by SIX Card Solutions

APCOA Parking UK: Online pre-booking at Gatwick Airport
APCOA UK has developed a system to provide online car park pre-booking functionality. The system allows for parking spaces to be reserved at any parking facility for any duration. It is a flexible system, which offers multi-site capability, dynamic pricing, parking system integration and third party and call centre integration.

The pre-book system can be integrated into clients’ websites or delivered as a standalone site promoted through the most popular website search engines. APCOA managing director Chris Pullen says the company has developed the system to support its airport and car park operations. “It has been integrated with the major parking systems on the market. We have also developed flexible payment solutions that allow the system to be integrated with different acquirers, including those used by our clients,” he says.

The system manages communication between a number of different user interfaces, stores the data gathered and transfers certain subsets of that data to external car park management systems. “The product has been further extended to support APCOA’s revenue reporting and yield management systems that offer greater data analysis, revenue protection and pricing mechanisms to support the business needs for parking management,” says Pullen. “Although only recently developed, the engine is already a presence in some capacity at London Heathrow Airport, London Luton Airport, Aberdeen Airport and Exeter Airport.”

Bath & NE Somerset Council and Mouchel Traffic Support: Bus lane ANPR
The application of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) enforcement at Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES) for bus lanes has enabled it to improve the efficiency of compliance. The bus lanes were introduced in April 2007 and images were captured manually. The issuing of PCNs was a costly and time-consuming task involving CCTV operatives, civil enforcement officers and back office staff.

In November 2009 an ANPR/CCTV solution was introduced. BNES parking manager Dorothy Miley says: “Now any vehicle driving in contravention is captured by the cameras, and the back office now has a more effective enforcement processes.”

The SEA ROADflow ANPR solution is fully integrated with Mouchel’s Integrated Civil Processing Software back office system. Mouchel’s Chris Murphy says: “The system has negated the need for CEOs to verify CCTV evidence, allowing their redeployment saved BNES £5,000 per month it was paying their contractor to capture evidence, reduced cancellations while increasing PCN issuance from fewer than 1,000 per month to 5,000.”

Highlight Parking: Baywatch Car Finder system
Baywatch was developed to overcome the problem of motorists locating their vehicles in most MSCPs, especially in larger ones such as airports or shopping centres.
Baywatch touch-screen kiosks are located at pedestrian entry points to the MSCP and, by simply entering a partial or full registration number, a picture of the customer’s vehicle will be displayed along with its position within the car park — eg. Level 3 Bay 368.

Highlight’s David Harrison says: “Full logs and statistics of stays by bay, by zone and by regeneration can be provided along with streaming video capability covering every bay of the MSCP.”

The product was in development and testing for a two-year period before the first system was installed in a 1,000-space MSCP for Fluor, a Fortune 500 listed company.

Parkeon: ParkingPal barrier-less solution
Parkeon’s barrier-less solution integrates an enhanced version of its Strada payment terminal, the Strada Touch, with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). A monochrome camera captures registration plate details, whilst a full-colour camera photographs vehicles entering the car park. The images are transmitted via a local area network and displayed on the terminal’s 7-inch colour, interactive touch-screen on which drivers identify their vehicles when paying for parking.

ParkingPal is designed to increase compliance and revenues with a range of payment options including coins, Chip & PIN credit/debit cards and various forms of e-payments via mobile phones, online payment channels and subscriber schemes. Parkeon’s director of parking for the UK & Ireland, Danny Hassett, says: “Without entry and exit barriers, ParkingPal considerably reduces the parking infrastructure, reducing capital expenditure and installation, maintenance and running costs. It also reduces queuing on entry/exit lanes and adjacent roads. ParkingPal runs on Parkeon’s global back office system, which processes payments and generates comprehensive financial, statistical and operational data.

“ParkingPal offers a link to a range of enforcement options. For example, a ‘soft’ enforcement policy gives drivers the opportunity to settle unpaid parking charges instead of paying a fine. Alternatively, ParkingPal may be programmed to generate PCNs automatically via an automatically via an automated ‘look up’ facility to the DVLA database.”

Parkmobile: An App for all seasons
In the summer of 2010 Parkmobile launched a fully functional parking app. The app was intended to offer an improved customer experience by reducing the time needed to book a parking event, facilitate the process of booking a parking event and offer improved inclusivity for cashless parking.

The app is available to all Parkmobile users as a free download.?Parkmobile’s relationship manager Charles Duchesne says: “The app has become a runaway success. Soon after launch it was number 5 in the download chart for free travel apps on the Apple App Store. Users have praised its streamlined workflows and user interface, and is widely recommended.”

Partners in Parking (PiP): Mystery Shopping Portal
In 2010 PiP came up with a new spin on the use of mystery shopping exercises. For the first time, benchmarking exercises have been carried out over a number of local authorities, using a uniform set of agreed standards to measure performance across all areas of the parking service.

Officers from participating authorities were trained how to carry out mystery shopping exercises through a series of workshops, ensuring a consistent level of testing across all authorities. Results from these exercises have been collated and turned into valuable feedback to all authorities involved in the initiative, which in turn has led to dramatic changes in policies and procedures for some boroughs.

PiP programme manager Neil Fenton says: “The Mystery Shopping Portal is an innovation that will change the way local authorities measure their performance in the future, and is a prime example of the many benefits of joint working and information sharing.”

Parking in the Community

Aberdeen City Councils: Aberdeen City Wardens
Aberdeen City Council made an innovative move in merging the roles of its parking officers, community wardens and environmental wardens to create city wardens. Their new role sees wardens work to deter anti-social behaviour, littering and illegal parking whilst reassuring the public that the council is doing all it can to keep communities safe and secure.

Aberdeen’s community safety manager Neil Carnegie says: “The initiative has helped the idea that parking enforcement contributes to the overall safety and smooth running of a community rather than being there simply to penalise drivers. The team has been commended by residents and the press for their success in deterring crime, developing initiatives in response to local  issues and generally being there to lend a hand in any situation which may arise within the community."

Cabot Circus: Taking the pain out of hospital parking
In April 2009 Cabot Circus’s parking manager Norman Ship contacted Bristol City?Centre Hospital’s administration department to find out what arrangements they had for patients visiting by car. “After phone calls and meetings, in June 2009 the BRI Hospital agreed to a three-month trial of a mini-bus service to and from the main local hospital,” says Norman Ship. “The service started off slowly, carrying an average of around five people a day.”

In March 2010, the hospital administration department started sending out information with appointment slips, adding a parking offer (£1 per hour) to its website. An article appeared in the local Bristol Evening Post newspaper. Ship says: “The shuttle bus service now carries an average of 150 people a day, with the NHS now laying on two minibuses, both of which have a large Cabot Circus logo. The shuttle service runs to four of the city centre’s main hospitals.”

Croydon Parking Services: One team serving one community
Croydon Parking Services has engaged with its community through a variety of surveys and drop-in sessions, stress surveys and the use of the Mosaic Profiling tool.
Head of parking services Mirsad Bakalovic says: “Parking Services staff regularly give up their own time to visit elderly customers who have received PCNs. They also help out at community events. They have worked with the Customer Strategy and Development?Team to hold parking surgeries and attend council events, libraries and the Customer Services Week.”

Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions, Liberty Services and Newlyn: Enforcement partners help children to ‘Rock Around the Bard’
Rock Around the Bard, which marries the work of Shakespeare with progressive rock music, was the brainchild of Ashley Bijster, managing director of Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions (ICES). “Fun and laughter is not something normally associated with parking enforcement, where negative stories are all too common,” she says. “However, fun and laughter took centre stage last summer as a result of a charitable initiative supported by three enforcement partners.

ICES, Liberty Services and Newlyn created an educational workshop for 30 school children near Bristol as part of a local arts festival. “The workshop featured direct input from a rock band from the Inspire Arts Trust Music Academy,” says Bijster. “It provided young and aspiring musicians with the opportunity to learn more about the Bard and to compose and perform a piece of music as a rock band. The event culminated in an X-Factor judging panel.”

Parking Person of the Year

Sponsored by RingGo

Barry Francis, general manager of infrastructure, Croydon Parking Services
In the space of eight years Barry Francis has risen up through the ranks from being a parking attendant in Brighton to his current position as general manager of infrastructure for Croydon Parking Services. He has implemented a number of initiatives to help improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve safety, including achieving nine Park Marks for the council-run car parks. He is credited with increasing the consultation response rate by revising the consultation strategy to make it more customer-friendly. Blue badge fraud is being tackled through enforcement, implementing the ‘companion badge’ and raising awareness amongst the community.

Peter Herbert, training officer, Croydon Parking Services
Peter Herbert’s career has taken him from being a parking attendant through to being responsible for the training and development of the whole of parking services — over 150 staff. Over 50 members of staff have completed a range of qualifications such as NVQ in Parking Control Level 2, Business Administration Levels 2 and 3, Customer Service Levels 2 and 3, and ITQ Level 2. Through his wide range of contacts, Herbert has secured all the training free of charge through external partners including South Thames College and B2B?Engage.

Cherelle Lander, civil enforcement officer, NSL Services, City of Westminster
Cherelle Lander works for the City of Westminster parking operation. She has been instrumental in promoting positive messages about parking enforcement to millions of TV viewers and newspaper readers, demonstrating the job of a civil enforcement officer (CEO). Her appearance on BBC1’s The One Show, when she showed Phil Tufnell how to be a CEO, was seen by more than 5m people. Appearances on ITV London and BBC London were seen by more than 1.5m viewed. She has been the focus of features in The Times and Sunday Times, which have a combined readership of 4.5m.

Tim Cowen, NSL communications director, says: “We believe Cherelle has been seen by more than anyone else in the parking industry over the past year and has made an invaluable contribution to the effort to improve the public perception of our industry.”

Angela O’Shea, parking administration manager, London Borough of Hillingdon
Since being runner-up in last year’s awards, Angela O’Shea has not rested on her laurels. She has risen through the local authority parking ranks from qualifying as a parking attendant less than ten years ago to head a team of 20 notice processing staff with responsibility for all back office duties. O’Shea’s successes include devising a dedicated notice processing course to raise standards and improve professionalism throughout the industry. She formed a cross-boundary partnership with other London authorities to share training.

O’Shea has promoted the benefits of the Traffic Management Act through building relationships with council members. A resident disabled permit has been introduced in Hillingdon so that disabled motorists can park outside their own home. Penalty payments and residents’ permit renewal services have been put online.

Best Refurbishment Award

Sponsored by the Safer Parking Scheme

Long-term car park, Gatwick Airport: APCOA Parking
APCOA is responsible for running all on-site parking at Gatwick Airport. A need to improve the aesthetics of the long-term car?park at the South Terminal was identified, as well as improving the technology to ensure the car park best suited the needs of 21st Century passengers. APCOA’s UK managing director Chris Pullen says: “The ethos of the planning was to improve the customer experience and to ensure the car park was totally compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). There was a lack of dedicated disabled facilities, the road markings and signage were old and unclear, and the buses and bus stops were in a poor state of repair.”

APCOA also wanted to improve the communication channel for customers arriving at the long-term car park, ensuring they knew where to park and how long they would wait for the next shuttle bus. Before undertaking any improvements, much thought was given to minimising the out-of-service time for all the zones within the car park. “The works were planned to commence during the quieter seasons, enabling APCOA to close one zone at a time,” Pullen says. “The APCOA project management team worked closely with the contractors to ensure a seamless experience during the improvement phase.”

Brighton & Hove City Council and VolkerLaser: The Lanes, Brighton
Brighton & Hove City Council has transformed one of its key car parks. The Lanes is a 347-space pay-on-foot car park which sits at the heart of the Lanes shopping area in the centre of the city. It is located close to the Palace Pier, Brighton Town Hall, restaurants and theatres. For many visitors the car park is the front door to the city, creating their first and last impressions of Brighton &?Hove.

Brighton & Hove’s parking services manager Rebecca Speight says: “The objective of the refurbishment was to transform the car park’s look and feel and develop a distinctive brand which signalled a new beginning. The project sought to create a safe and secure environment, attaining a Safer Parking Scheme Park Mark. “There was a need to improve access links to the external public realm and coordinate with a new, city-wide wayfinding strategy. The car park was de-cluttered to improve both visibility and cleanliness. Energy was saved by installing more efficient lighting and ventilation systems.”

Brighton & Hove City Council worked with project partners including main contractor VolkerLaser, SG?Consulting, Potter &?Holmes Architects and Parking Matters.

Gascoyne Way, Hertford: Makers Parking
The refurbishment of this 1960s car park by specialist contractor Makers Parking for East Herts Council was designed to enhance the parking experience for shoppers and retailers using the adjacent town centre and to increase the longevity of the town centre parking facility. Makers’ marketing director Peter Cowlard says: “Works involved concrete repairs, deck coatings, anti-carbonation decorative coatings, expansion joints, refurbished lift cars and stair cores, a complete new electrical system, incorporating CCTV and state-of-the-art lighting system with energy saving features.

“The pedestrian entrance was also remodelled with new car park entrance and canopy. The car park caters for the disabled motorist and specialist user groups. A unique feature of the parking regime is to allow short-stay parking only on the lower levels, with longer stay motorists being directed to the higher decks. It also incorporates wider bays in the short-stay area, giving more room around the cars for wheelchair users.”

The completed scheme has been awarded the Safer Parking Scheme Park Mark accreditation.

Makers Construction: Bold Lane, Derby
The Bold Lane car park, built in 1974, is owned by Derby City Council and has been operated by Parksafe (Systems) since 1998. Parksafe’s involvement was a response to continued problem of crime and criminal behaviour within the car park. The car park’s structural condition saw it put on the city’s “at risk” register and in 2007 Makers undertook holding repairs. On completion of the first tranche of repairs Makers informed the council that the structure was considerably worse than anticipate and suffering from heavy chloride levels. By 2009 the spalling had become so bad that the structure was erupting in large areas, preventing the safe parking of vehicles. This was unacceptable as Parksafe’s mantra is that it runs “the safest car park in the UK”.

In March 2010 Makers embarked on a 12-week project of concrete repairs, replacing waterproof membranes, applying corrosion inhibitors and applying anti-carbonation coatings to walls and soffits.

Ken Wigley, chairman of Parksafe, says: “The feedback has been immense. We love it, our customers love it. I am delighted by what we have jointly achieved. Bold Lane is the level all operators should aspire to.”

Q-Park: Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
Over a period of eight months Q-Park refurbished its Sauchiehall Street car park paying particular attention to areas that enhance customer perception and aid service delivery. The circulation route was reversed, energy efficient lighting installed, a new host lodge built and new parking equipment installed. New floor coatings were applied to the parking decks and pedestrian areas were tiled and painted.

“Q-Park successfully completed the refurbishment works whilst the facility was fully operational throughout,” says Adam Bidder, Q-Park’s UK managing director. “The works reduced the number of spaces, showing that Q-Park is prepared to reduce the number of bays in order to improve customer service standards.”

Parking Team of the Year

Sponsored by Creative Parking Solutions

Brighton & Hove City Council: Parking Services
Brighton & Hove City Council faces many challenges to managing demand for parking in the city. There are over 250,000 residents, 8 million visitors and a thriving calendar of events, including major conferences, Pride and the Brighton Marathon. Effective parking management is crucial to keeping the city moving. The team delivers a programme of measures including: providing access for residents, visitors and businesses, keeping traffic moving and delivering excellent customer service.

Brighton & Hove’s parking services manager Rebecca Speight says: “Whilst the stereotypical view of parking can be quite negative, the reality is that our staff deliver an outstanding level of customer service. We deal with a very complex and sensitive area which has a big impact on people in the city, but the overwhelming feedback from the people we serve is very positive. We are constantly asking our customers what they want and encouraging our team to come up with new ideas. We listen to these ideas and implement them where possible.”

Croydon Parking Services
Croydon Parking Services works in partnership with a number of internal and external organisations. Examples include a partnership with Connexions, the local Job Centre Plus and human resources in order to recruit nine apprentices to the division across a number of teams. Secondly, parking services is providing local colleges with newer vehicles for their trainee mechanics to work on for educational purposes.

The council’s blue badge operation to combat fraud and misuse is carried out with the Metropolitan Police, Croydon Travel Services and Croydon Legal Services. The parking team is highly qualified with both industry and external qualifications. Croydon Parking Services is committed to supporting personal development, putting 52 staff on different NVQ programmes, including customer services, business administration, ITQ and ICT.

Head of parking services Mirsad Bakalovic says: “These highly qualified, motivated and customer-driven staff have led to a drop in cancellation rates, and an increase in recovery rates, which points to a better quality of PCN being issued by our staff.”

Empark UK: Stansted Airport Team
The Empark team at London Stansted Airport is running the first contract the operator has established in the UK. The Stansted team has worked to unite the valet, short, mid and long-stay car parks to operate via a central control system. Ensuring high levels of customer service are applied across all the products was a priority.

Stansted has become a site of best practice from which Empark is now  able to roll out as a model for all future contracts. Empark international director Luis Blanco says:  “High standards of customer service that have been achieved by the team through the development of staff training programmes and company cultural inductions. The team has already gained an award for customer service and product excellence by ‘Go?Simply’ for three consecutive months and a runner-up in the Holiday Extras awards.”

Over the past year the Stansted team have performed consistently despite operating the car parks in difficult conditions caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption, severe weather conditions and car fires. Farnworth adds: “These had only a minimal impact on customers’ parking experience.”

London Borough of Lambeth: Parking Correspondence Team
Over the last six months, Lambeth Parking Services’ correspondence team has successfully cleared a significant backlog of 28,000 letters, complaints, enquiries, representations and appeals. The currently weekly workload has been reduced to just over 1,500 pieces of correspondence.

Through guidance from management and the promoting of open lines of communication, the correspondence team has implemented a number of policy changes and operational enhancements, which have resulted in a much improved standard of service and a visibly increased morale level amongst all members of the team.

Team Lancashire: Off-street Parking Partnership
In March 2009 the district councils of Lancashire faced a dilemma. Following a significant political debate, Lancashire County Council decided that on the termination of the five-year Parkwise contract in September 2009 it would provide just an on-street parking service. This left the district councils to provide the off-street service in their respective areas. James Douglas, programme director: Team Lancashire at Chorley District Council, explains: “Lancashire County Council was prepared to include the district level off-street requirements within the procurement exercise it would carry out. However, there were concerns at district level that this might not deliver the kind of service they wanted to see on the ground. The districts felt it might be possible to independently procure a service which would provide better value-for-money, even against a very tight timeframe.”

Led by Team Lancashire, alternative options were identified and evaluated for the district councils. The result was eight out of the county’s 11 districts formed a back office partnership with IT firm Chipside, which started on 6?September 2009.

Six of the nine districts requiring an enforcement service entered into individually negotiated short-term contracts with Legion Parking Services, and four which required cash collection services also negotiated short-term contracts with Legion.

The Lancashire Procurement Hub undertook a formal procurement exercise, putting in place long-term contract for enforcement and cash collection for the partnership districts from June 2010. It is estimated that efficiency savings of around £700,000 will be generated across the partnership.

Shropshire Council: Parking Enforcement
Shropshire civil parking enforcement officers (CEO) team consists of 14 Officers (one supervisor, three senior enforcement officers and 10 enforcement officers). Dave Roberts, Shropshire’s environmental enforcement manager, says: “The team’s aim is to provide a competent, professional, customer-focussed parking service by delivering fair, proportionate and necessary parking enforcement both on and off-street to ensure the smooth flow of traffic and an exemplary high standard of customer service to the general public.

“To become more effective and cost-efficient the service has taken on a new civil pride role. A more comprehensive network of eyes and ears to reassure and increase the confidence of local people and drive down the fear of crime, environmental crime and help strength community pride by building community cohesion,” says Roberts.

One of the Shrophsire’s key objectives was to focus on tackling potential offenders, specific crimes and anxiety triggers through methods such as high visible patrol work in areas of high footfall by joint tasking with police and local businesses representatives. “The CEOs are also deployed in order to support victims, provide advice and community reassurance by their visibility and they are able to promote relevant community safety services, without diminution to their primary parking enforcement role,” says Roberts.  “There is already statistical evidence of a categorical improvement in crime, environmental and front-line customer services or how local residents experience and express their fears. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that in-roads are beginning to be made into that areas of providing a first class customer ambassadorial service by the CEOs."