British Parking Awards: Young Parking Professional finalists

Young Parking Professional of the Year, sponsored by Bemrose Mobile

Tom Davis, parking projects officer, London Borough of Merton
Tom Davis is the man Merton Parking Services turns to when it needs to rationalise its parking enforcement, permit and processing systems. His talent for creating smoothly operating procedures is now being tapped into by other council teams.

Paul Walshe, parking services manager, Merton Council: Tom Davis has been a member of Merton Parking Services for over six years, having originally joined as an agency member of staff to undertake filing for the PCN processing team.

Very quickly, Tom showed that he was capable of far more. When cover was required for the permits team he moved into that area. When a vacancy arose within the PCN processing team he applied for the position and was successful.

With his in-depth understanding of IT systems, he very quickly began to take on additional duties outside his original job scope. These ranged from assisting team members with general IT enquiries to complex tasks and projects such as reviewing all PCN documentation and amending it, including building templates for all subsequent documentation, ensuring it met legislative requirements.

More recently, Tom was appointed to a seconded role as project officer with the intention that this would be a part-time position with him undertaking work with the appeals and debt registration team for the remainder of his time.

This role evolved into a full-time position with Davis working closely with the joint review team in building the Parking Services ‘dashboard’. The dashboard produces monthly figures detailing budgetary and operational information across the whole of Parking Services, giving a clear ‘at a glance’ level of information with regard to the department’s achievements and also highlights areas to address. It breaks information down so it can be used to address specific operational issues.

Most recently, Tom has been instrumental in coordinating and building the system specification for the permits system upgrade. This has now been implemented.

Tom undertook PRINC2 Project Management training to gain a greater understanding of project management requirements and implementation processes. The initial stage of this project has been completed, with work due to start on the planning of the migration. Implementation is expected in April.

Helen Burke, Merton’s interim IT project manager, adds: “I have worked with Tom on the parking permits and PCN systems project and would like to say that he is a great asset to both the London Borough of Merton and Parking Services. He has shown great understanding of both Parking Service customers and how to deliver excellent customer services, as was clearly illustrated in the business case. He has put in the time and effort to make sure the project got signed off and continues to ensure that the work necessary to drive it forward is done.”

Stuart Harrison, commercial director, UK Parking Control
Stuart Harrison joined UK Parking Control (UKPC) in 2008 at the age of 25. During his four-and-half years at UKPC he has taken on most roles within the company and in mid-2012 was invited to become the company’s commercial director.

Rupert J Williams, managing director of UKPC: Stuart Harrison joined UK?Parking Control (UKPC) in 2008 at the age of 25. During his four-and-half years at UKPC he has taken on most roles within the company and in mid-2012 was invited to become the company’s commercial director.

Along with being involved in all aspects of UKPC’s development, he is actively working with the community and industry to improve relations and the public’s perception. Recently he has been helping UKPC and others in the industry adapt policies to reflect the changes imposed by the Protection of Freedoms Act.

Shortly after joining his talents for account management and sales were identified and he was promoted to contracts manager, overseeing the daily management of sites for a number of key clients and delivering sales pitches for larger clients. This proved incredibly successful and he worked diligently to ensure that all clients remained very happy and that the company continued to grow year on year.

In 2010 Stuart was placed in charge of ensuring company compliance with the varying legislative frameworks across the UK as well as compliance with the BPA Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice. This resulted in re-writing all of UKPC’s documentation and reviewing this on an ongoing basis. Stuart takes a keen interest in the industry and attends a number of events hosted by the BPA, the BCSC (British Council of Shopping Centres) and legal workshops/symposiums. In the summer of 2010 Stuart delivered a presentation at the facilities show at the NEC with the head of the Approved Operator Scheme (AOS) from the BPA, reinforcing the importance of members of the public engaging with members of the association rather than ‘Cowboy Clampers’.

In this new role he has become invaluable as a source of knowledge for all UKPC departments to lean on when developing processes or new policies. He now runs internal workshops for staff to help improve their understanding on many topics as well as being actively involved in new staff training.

Stuart is committed to the parking sector and has met with MPs, Trading Standards officials, councillors, lawyers and residential associations to help change the way people think about private parking management and try and represent the industry the best way possible.

In May 2012 aged 28, having done almost all jobs within the company at some point, Stuart was offered the opportunity to join the board of directors and now occupies the position of commercial director. He oversees all legal and compliance issues across the company and is working on re-structuring  UKPC’s systems and processes to ensure that the company can continue to deliver a high quality of service whilst remaining efficient as the company grows in size.

Most recently Stuart worked on preparing UKPC to work in line with the new Protection of Freedoms Act training all staff on the new legislative change as well as redesigning processes and the ways in which departments were working. He is keen to use technology where possible to increase efficiency and allow for greater productivity.

Right from the very start Stuart came to UKPC with a can do attitude. Every task he faced from a menial admin task to negotiating some of the largest parking contracts in the UK, he has carried out with complete dedication and determination.  Stuart also has a natural ability to help others within the company achieve their personal goals whilst still achieving his own.

Martin Mallia, engineer: parking development, Slough Borough Council
Whether it is implementing CPZs, travel plans or safer parking near schools or driveway parking schemes, Martin Mallia has found parking offers an infinite variety of interesting traffic management challenges.

Martin Mallia writes: I have been working as a member of Slough Borough Council’s parking team for five-and-a-half years. I joined the team on a temporary contract to provide administrative support after finishing my Bachelor’s degree in Music. Before long, I was integrated into the team as a parking appeals officer, as well as managing the council’s debt recovery processes. In 2008, the opportunity presented itself for me to work as a parking development engineer.

Slough Borough Council sponsored me to study for an MSc in Transport Planning and Practice at the University of Surrey in order to develop and refine my work experience through academic theory. I am due to graduate in February with an MSc qualification and a member of the Transport Planning Professionals, with the view to become a full member of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation.

I have worked around significant travel generators within the borough (i.e. hospitals, places of worship, schools, rail stations and the town centre) to ensure that parking is controlled where demand often exceeds capacity.

Wrexham Park Hospital introduced a new travel plan which displaced approximately 2,000 staff permits from their site. Vehicles were being parked in the local vicinity instead, meaning the travel plan was not working effectively and local residents were suffering. I worked with the hospital and local community to introduce schemes that included residents parking, limited waiting and no waiting restrictions.

I introduced the first controlled parking zone (CPZ) within the borough which encompassed the area surrounding Burnham train station. The local community was suffering from inconsiderate commuter parking, which caused a variety of road safety and access issues for emergency service vehicles. The CPZ on the surrounding streets restricted parking from 10-11am from Monday to Friday to prevent all-day commuter parking whilst having minimal impacts on the local residents. A CPZ with entry and exit signs enabled me to introduce the scheme whilst minimising the number of signs required, which helped support the council’s attempts to reduce street clutter and signage throughout the borough.

I have worked with a number of schools who suffer from inconsiderate parking by parents dropping off and collecting their children. Many schools within the borough are located in densely populated residential areas, where capacity for parking is minimal. I have tried to regulate parking around the most problematic areas by introducing waiting and loading restrictions mirroring school pick-up and drop-off times to regulate where parents can park.

More recently, I have implemented a scheme which has made all of the residential disabled parking bays in the borough enforceable. These markings have historically been advisory with the borough, which meant that they were abused by non-Blue Badge holders on a regular basis. By responding to a number of complaints, I undertook a project to have each bay (over 200) in the borough brought up to enforceable standard (which included resizing bays, installing the necessary signage and applying to the DfT to approve bays that were not permitted by the regulations).

I am currently working on a scheme to introduce a footway parking restrictions across the borough. A pilot area was identified and I have been part of the team that has designed a scheme which combines footway parking restrictions, ‘2 wheels up’ footway parking (at locations with wide enough footways) and no waiting restrictions to regulate the way in which people park within the pilot area.

Adam Mohamedally, surveyor, Drivers Jonas Deloitte
Adam Mohamedally joined Deloitte as a graduate in 2008, where he specialised in car parking advice to operators and owners. He was heavily involved in lease negotiations and restructures with Britannia Parking and has gone on to specialise in this sector.

Andy Thomas, London Borough of?Camden: “The London Borough of Camden held a long lease on a 455-bay underground car park in Bloomsbury Square which had a significant, multi-million pound repair liability. Adam advised the council on ways in which we could overcome this problem.

He marketed a long underlease through a competitive process and managed to agree terms with S&K Parking (trading as Secure Parking) to take on the council’s liability and to also pay a substantial base rent with a strong turnover rent.

The transaction involved a lengthy and difficult negotiation to agreed a complex underlease and other associated licenses and contracts.

Adam has a clear commitment to the parking sector as a career, having worked with operators such as Britannia Parking and NCP, as well as owners of car parks such as local authorities and airports across the UK. He went the extra mile for Camden by bringing his insight and knowledge of the industry to the council and we were hugely impressed with his professionalism.

Paul?Gallagher, property director of Britannia, adds: “We have worked with Adam over a number of years and used his services on a number of properties across our portfolio. We have experienced Adam’s depth of knowledge about the parking industry and how it functions to be vast and this has been invaluable to us in the advice he has been able to give us with regards to our own car parking sites. I would have no qualms about recommending Adam’s services to my piers within the industry and feel that he would be a worthwhile and deserving recipient of The Young Parking Professional 2013 Award.”

Russell Simmons, commercial director Pyle Car Park Consultants
A specialist in car park structures who has designed a new online resource for managing Life Care Plans, Russell Simmons is passionate about parking.

Jeff Jones, business development manager, Radflex Contract Services: Whilst holding a surveying-based Honours degree, Russell’s has 10 years experience of working in a design office undertaking surveys and forensic structural engineering. He is, therefore, well placed to offer advice to asset managers looking for the best way to deal with structural issues and prolonging the life of their assets.

Set up by Russell and Bret Champion in 2010, Pyle Car Park Consultants builds on decades of car park specific services provided by consulting engineering practice Pyle Consulting (formerly Brian Pyle).

The practice’s founders agreed that the best way to serve the parking industry was to separate Pyle’s car park related business so that it could concentrate on perfecting its professional services.

Russell’s roles include the management of a team of experts, ensuring the continuing development of staff, the practices and developing new methods of serving the sector. He has provided specialist services to local authorities, private sector property owners such as Brighton & Hove City Council, Horsham District Council, the Borough of Poole and Surrey Heath Borough Council. He has also worked with property agents such as Savills and advised contractors such as Matrix Solutions and USL StructureCare.

He has devised and driven the development of the Reportal Life Care Plan system, a web-based system that enables car park owners to adhere to IStructE and BPA guidelines whilst ensuring that car parks are regularly maintained on a proactive rather than reactive basis.

His commitment to improving Britain’s car park structures has seen him work with the BPA, and he has just taken over chairmanship of the Structures and Assets Special Interest Group.