Blue Badge holders can now use the AppyParking mobile app to see the availability of accessible parking bays across the City of London in real-time. The system will also allow the City of London Corporation’s parking team to see how the accessible bays are used. The occupancy of 188 accessible bays across the City is being monitored using AppyParking’s smart sensor solution, Blue Badge holders can now use the free AppyParking mobile app to not only see the locations of accessible ba

East Cheshire NHS Trust has adopted a new parking system at Macclesfield District General Hospital. The new system, which has been provided by ParkingEye, enables pay-on-exit via kiosks or via a mobile payment service. ParkingEye has been managing public and staff parking at the hospital since January 2015. It operates an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system and deploys customer service attendants to ensure compliance with parking regulations and that payments are made. Payments fo

Disabled motoring and parking campaigner Helen Dolphin MBE featured in a Daily Mirror article marking 20 years of the Pride in Britain Awards. The article sets out how, as a 24-year-old studying for a doctorate at Imperial College London she was struck by virulent meningococcal septicemia. As she lay in a coma, surgeons amputated both her legs, most of one arm and her other hand. Her internal organs were also affected by poisoning. “At the time I had nothing, I was completely destitute,

A park & ride facility for a Welsh hospital will be closed on 30 June, despite objections from users and politicians. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) introduced the facility in October 2014 for Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, the general hospital for central North Wales. This followed major construction works at the hospital, which reduced the space available for parking on the hospital campus. Visitors and staff were invited to use the car park of a vacant factory, about a mile from th

Disabled Motoring UK works to support the mobility of disabled people, and there is no dispute that people with certain mental health conditions and cognitive disabilities could benefit from having a Blue Badge. However, the charity is very concerned that from August onwards numbers of Blue Badge holders will dramatically increase, that will put more pressure on limited disabled parking that is poorly enforced and in some areas of the country not enforced at all. We are asking that all local au

Imaginative systems and solutions on show at Parkex 2019 were flagged up on The Innovation Trail. The 10 companies selected for inclusion on the trail had a chance to pitch the benefits of their systems to a jury panel and visitors alike at a series of hustings held across the three-day event Innovation of the Year QUCITParkPredict ControlParkPredict Control is an all-in-one tool for effective on-street parking enforcement powered by artificial intelligence. It uses machine-learning algorithms

Mid Sussex County Council has successfully prosecuted 14 for Blue Badge parking fraud and another 100 people have been issued official warnings. In the latest case, county council enforcement observed a man using a badge that did not belong to him to park on single-yellow lines near his workplace. The man was found guilty by a jury of using a Blue Badge with intent to deceive. He now has a criminal record and has to pay fines and court costs totalling £7,500 – £1,500 in fines

Plans for a multi-storey car park at the Bristol Royal Infirmary have been turned down. The 820-space car park is intended for use by patients, visitors and staff. Of the 820 spaces, 34 would be for disabled use and there would be six electric vehicle charging bays. The car park would also have a 400-space bike hub with changing rooms, bike storage and cycle maintenance areas, and facilities for oversize bikes and battery-assisted bikes. Bristol City Council’s planning committee refused

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has adopted the PayByPhone system at its Hillingdon and Mount Vernon hospital car parks. The trust wanted to offer an alternative to the existing pay & display machines. Steve Wedgwood, assistant director of facilities for the NHS trust, said: “Working with PayByPhone will enable us t introduce more flexibility into the way that our car park users, which include visitors and staff, can pay for their parking. “Rather than having to r

Plans for a new multi-storey car park at Watford General Hospital in Hertfordshire have been given the green light. Watford Borough Council unanimously approved plans proposed by its development partner, Kier Property Regeneration, for the new car park last month. The facility will provide nearly 1,300 spaces for staff, patients and visitors. A further 50 spaces are available for Watford Football Club. West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust has welcomed the plan, saying the car park will help

Over 160 people gathered in Manchester for the Traffic + Parking conference. Traffic + Parking was devised by Parking Review, Landor LINKS and programme partner PATROL to build on the legacy of the long-running Parking World event. The day opened with PATROL’s chair Cllr Jamie Macrae and director Louise Hutchinson exploring the wide range of rules and regulations for which local authority parking and traffic teams are now responsible. The range of traffic initiatives is increasing, with l

People eligible for Blue Badges can apply in a fraction of the previous time, thanks to a new online service launched by the Department for Transport (DfT). The Blue Badge scheme allows disabled people to park closer to their destination than other drivers, as they are less able to take public transport or walk long distances. The new DfT service allows applicants to complete the entire process without sending their supporting documents in the post. Instead, people can upload documents, includ

The new NCP car park on Stanley Street in Salford has installed dual electric charging and disabled bays that can only be used by Blue Badge holders who are charging their electric vehicles (EVs). The idea was proposed by Helen Dolphin MBE and Libbie Bilyard, founders of the People’s Parking accreditation scheme. They came up with the idea for the dual bay when making improvements to the People’s Parking accreditation. “Within the accreditation we look at provision for electri

Jaguar Land Rover has developed a car door that opens automatically as the driver approaches or can be operated by gesture control. The mobility door prototype, currently being tested on a Range Rover Sport, uses motion sensors and existing keyless entry technology to detect the driver as they walk towards the vehicle before automatically opening the door to welcome them like an invisible valet. Jaguar Land Rover predicts the technology could help disabled people for whom a car is their main mo

Traffic and parking management professionals will be gathering in Manchester during January to discuss issues such as the effective management of the kerbside, preparing Clean Air Zones, creating safer school streets, regulating pavement parking and the case for workplace parking levies. The Traffic + Parking conference on 22 January 2019 will be a forum in which parking and traffic management professionals from both the public and private sectors can gather to discuss the operational issues th

The British Parking Awards 2019 recognises excellence in management, design and innovation in both the on-street and off-street parking sector. To give entrants some extra time refine submissions, the deadline for sending in entry packs has been extended to Thursday 10 January. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition has categories that cover the design and upkeep of buildings, as well as ground-breaking policies, excellent services and innovative technology.&nb

The theft of Blue Badges used by disabled motorists in England has risen by 45% in the past 12 months and is up sixfold since 2013, the Local Government Association (LGA) reports. The number of people caught abusing the scheme has more than doubled, with 1,215 successful council prosecutions in 2018, up from 535 in 2014. More than two million disabled people use Blue Badges for parking in pay & display bays and for up to three hours on yellow lines. In London, badge holders are exempt from

The International Parking Community used its annual conference to launch its ‘Raising the Bar’ manifesto. The document sets out the organisation’s ambition to push for better parking practices and an improved parking experience to address the negativity, distrust and cynicism felt by some of the motoring public. In his opening address at the conference, IPC chief executive Will Hurley told the 200 delegates at the Hilton Double Tree in Milton Keynes: “We’ve injected

A car park operated by Marriott’s in the Lincolnshire town of Retford has achieved both the Park Mark under the Safer Parking and the Disabled Parking Accreditation. Operator Richard Marriott said: “We have sought to create an excellent car park that will be of benefit to local residents as well as commuters from Retford train station.” Peter Gravells, the British Parking Association area manager, said: “That this new car park has achieved the awards is a fantastic achi

North Manchester General Hospital has extended the life of its ageing Metric Accent machines using the IPS Revolution upgrade kits. The upgrade to the machines provides the hospital’s car park users with cashless payment in the form of contactless technology. This means visitors to the hospital no longer have to find the right change, removing what can sometimes be an annoyance to an already stressful situation. Barry Waterhouse, travel and access manager for the hospital, said: “W

The work of local authority and private sector parking professionals in supporting people with disabilities have been supporting by Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) at its annual awards. DMUK is a national campaigning charity for disabled drivers, passengers and Blue Badge holders. It works with government and businesses to improve parking, refuelling and access provision for disabled people, so that they can access the goods and services that they need. DMUK also campaigns for and supports scooter a

A petition calling for an immediate end to car parking charges at all NHS hospitals was delivered to Number 10 Downing Street last month (10 September). The online petition, launched by Robert Halfon MP and Howard Cox, founder of motoring campaign group FairFuelUK, received over 26,000 signatures. The petition states: “Hospital car parking charges affect the vulnerable, visitors of ill relatives and hardworking NHS staff. The fees are a major cause of social injustice.  “In 2

Many car parks have a mix of users, comprising the public, contract customers and permit holders. Parking payment and access control systems can now be configured to distinguish between different user groups using increasingly nuanced algorithms. Cheshire West & Chester Council wanted to find a way of accommodating visitors to the Delamare Street car park in the city that serves both the general public and patients and visitors to four doctor’s surgeries and a sexual health clinic.&nb

The multi-storey car park at Preston Bus Station has been awarded a Park Mark under the Safer Parking Scheme. The car park at the Grade II-Listed building is owned by Lancashire County Council. As part of the recent multi-million pound redevelopment of the building by the county council, work has been completed on the car park levels including repairs to the concrete, improved lighting, new security cameras, and repairs and improvements to the access ramps. The car park was awarded a Park Mar

Ford, Uber and Lyft will work together to develop a universal data standard for real-time kerb demand and availability. The car-maker and ride-share companies will work with SharedStreets, Bloomberg’s ‘open transport partnership’, to develop a data platform that will make it easier for the private sector to work with cities around the world and leverage data to improve urban mobility.  The agreement seeks to provide a common standard for sharing data across all cities, wh

The 2019 edition of the British Parking Awards is up and running. Now in its 18th year, the competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The awards encompass both the on-street and off-street sides of the parking sector. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition has categories that cover the design and upkeep of buildings, as well as ground-break

Total Car Parks lent its support to the West Berkshire Community Hospital Open Day’ on 6 September by offering a day’s free parking on the patient and visitor car park it operates The open day showcased the hospital’s new £5m renal dialysis and cancer care units. Essy Eslamian, managing director of Total Car Parks, said: “The units were built through public donations and provide essential facilities to the community - and we wanted to give something back to them.&

The House of Commons Library has produced a briefing paper for MPs on the operation of disabled parking policy in England. It has been written by Louise Butcher, senior policy researcher at the House of Commons Library, who has also produced a briefing paper for MPs on the operation of disabled parking policy in England. Blue Badges and parking for disabled people in England focusses on the permit scheme but also includes information on the provision of parking bays and off-street parking for di

A digest of government policies on public and private parking has been published by the House of Commons Library, which provides research, analysis and information services for MPs and their staff.  Two briefing documents on parking have been produced for MPs, one on parking policy and another on the operation of the Blue Badge scheme (see page 49). Both briefings have been authored by Louise Butcher, senior researcher at the House of Commons Library. Parking Policy in England summarises:

The issue of parking within hospitals evokes strong emotions and seems to be constantly in the news. Finding a balance between meeting the cost of delivering a service with providing a customer experience that is sensitive to the environment is not an easy task. When faced with having to upgrade its ageing pay & display systems, Torbay Hospital decided not to go down the camera enforcement route and, instead, opted to implement a new parking regime that uses a mix of barrier and pay & di

Northampton Hospital is allowing members of the public using its car parks to skip the pay & display machines and purchase parking via their phones instead. “Patients and visitors started enquiring about alternative payment methods at the hospital and we felt that we could make better use of available technologies to improve their parking experience,” says Brian Willett, hotel services manager at Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust.  The hospital has seven car parks on c

A decade has passed since the Welsh Government decided that parking should be free at all NHS hospitals in Wales. Only now has the commitment been met in full, with the abolition of parking charges at the largest hospital, the University Hospital of Wales (UHW). The reason that UHW still charged for parking was because this was an aspect of the hospital’s contract with Indigo, which concluded on 4 June.  Parking on the site is now managed for the Cardiff and Vale University Health Bo

On 29 July the Department for Transport (DfT) released its Blue Badge consultation: summary of responses and government response. This followed a public consultation about eligibility issues in relation to the Blue Badge (Disabled Parking) Scheme particularly with regards to non-visible disabilities. The consultation received a total of 6,349 responses from members of the public, local authorities, groups representing disabled people and other organisations including People’s Parking.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has set out its Inclusive Transport Strategy (ITS), which aims to improve accessibility for disabled people across the UK’s transport network. It is hoped that the measures set out in the strategy will make travel fully accessible and inclusive for disabled passengers by 2030. This strategy was produced following the Accessibility Action Plan (AAP) consultation, which received over 1,000 responses from disabled people and passenger groups. In parallel to

People with hidden disabilities, including autism and mental health conditions will be given access to Blue Badges, the Department for Transport has confirmed. The Blue Badge scheme already means those with physical disabilities can park closer to their destination than other drivers, as they are less able to take public transport or walk longer distances. This will now be extended to those with less visible conditions early next year. The changes follow an 8-week consultation and are being bi

It is a sad fact that violence towards civil enforcement officers (CEOs) and front line staff increases just after media frenzies such as the one between an ambulance driver and front line staff. It is important to step back and evaluate the situation calmly. The British Parking Association continues to seek better protection and respect for people delivering parking services and campaigns for a reduction in abuse and malicious behaviour towards civil enforcement officers (CEOs) and other parki

A man has been ordered by court to pay more than £6,561 after he admitted using an expired disabled Blue Badge belonging to someone else. Richard Wellesley-Cole appeared at Croydon Crown Court on 4 July where he admitted five counts of breaching Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006, Wellesley-Cole, 54, displayed the Blue Badge in his £120,000 Porsche when he parked at two sites in Croydon. He was sentenced to pay costs of £5,061, fined £1,500 for breaching a suspended senten

Every day millions of journeys end in a parking space. We all want to live in a cleaner, safer, less congested world, yet without effective parking management there would be chaos, and access to places and people would be significantly harder. The British Parking Association (BPA) is the recognised and leading authority within the parking sector. We have 50 years’ worth of experience. We work closely with government, stakeholders and members on driving excellence in parking for all. We do

NCP has secured a 29-year lease for the multi-storey car park serving Royal Liverpool University Hospital. The 702-space facility provides spaces for hospital staff. NCP has committed to investing around £300,000 on improvements throughout the car park. There will be an upgrade of all the parking equipment, enabling it to be fully integrated with NCP’s 24/7 Customer Contact Centre. Lighting throughout the multi-storey car park will also be upgraded and replaced with LED, to offer t

Mid Sussex District Council has been awarded the Disabled Parking Accreditation in 15 of its car parks.  Car parks are awarded this accreditation, created by Disabled Motoring UK, after an assessment has demonstrated it meets criteria for the provision of spaces, accessibility and clear enforcement of disabled bays. Seventeen of the Mid Sussex District Council car parks also retained their Park Marks under the Safer Parking Scheme.  Cllr Gary Marsh, portfolio holder for service deli

Smart Parking has been selected to supply its sensor and analysis technology to the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s Sharing Cities and Low Emission Neighbourhood initiatives. Greenwich is a culturally significant area in south-east London. It is a complex urban environment with a mixture of historic sites, urban housing, businesses and green spaces. It is the location of the Prime Meridian, Greenwich Observatory, Cutty Sark, National Maritime Museum and a university. Greenwich council is ke

Employees at a hospital in Romford, Essex, have been told they must sign up to a carpooling scheme if they want to qualify for a parking permit. As part of a parking permit reallocation at Queen’s Hospital last month, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHR) said that only those who signed up to the Faxi carpooling app would get a permit. So far, more than 328 employees have registered as drivers while 83 have signed up as passengers, said Faxi.  “W

Open Parking has appointed Sharon Silcock as its business development manager with responsibility for the company’s interests in the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland. Silcock was previously a sales account manager for NCP and sales director of Parking Scheme, a company specialising in salary sacrifice parking schemes. “I’m relishing the opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of Open Parking’s refreshing approach to parking management for the benefit of organ

Universities are being invited to join a forum for sharing knowledge and best practice to improve the quality, resilience and fairness of parking arrangements for students, staff and visitors.  The International Parking Community (IPC) has launched the Education Forum to offer both city centre and campus universities a way to learn from each other’s experiences at quarterly meetings and via a dedicated online platform.  “Having insufficient parking spaces to meet demand i

Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust has updated parking arrangements at Tewkesbury Community Hospital’s car park using Nortech technology. The trust wanted a barrier-based parking control system that would deter misuse of the hospital’s car park.  Entry control system specialist ASGuk Security and Safety Systems selected Nortech’s FeeMaster parking system for the project. The FeeMaster Smart parking management system does not require cabling between components, which

Pavement parking is a common issue for local authorities and communities around Britain, but PATROL (Parking and Traffic Regulation Outside London) suggests there may be more than one solution to solving the issue and multiple benefits to be derived.  In August 2017 a draft Transport Accessibility Action Plan was issued for public consultation by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). The action plan includes a section on unauthori

Youth and experience were both honoured at the British Parking Awards 2018, which were held in London on Friday 9 March. The awards ceremony saw a group of six people recognised as the Young Parking Professionals of the Year. The recipients carry out a wide variety of roles, including traffic consultancy, structural engineering, project management within local government, financial control, customer and client relationships. One of the group, structural engineer Andrea Piniella from Stripe Con

The British Parking Awards 2018 attracted around 100 entries from across the country, from which a short list of finalists has been selected. The entries have been assessed by a panel of experts made up of parking managers, transport and parking consultants, representatives from the major parking associations and bodies representing the motoring and freight sectors. The winners will be revealed at a gala lunch to be held in London on 9 March. To see the list of finalists click here The diverse

People with hidden disabilities could soon have greater access to Blue Badges under new plans from transport minister Jesse Norman. The proposals would help remove barriers to travel for people with conditions such as dementia and autism, allowing them better access to work, shops and amenities. The Department for Transport says the changes are part of a drive for greater parity between the treatment of physical and mental health conditions. About 2.4m disabled people in England have a Bl

Open Parking has appointed Justin Ben-Nathan as business development manager. Open Parking is the operational arm of Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions. Its portfolio includes to hospitals, universities, retail parks, shopping malls, leisure centres, transport hubs, residential and office developments. Ben-Nathan was formerly national sales executive at APCOA Parking, where he previously held a number of business development and commercial management roles working with clients such as Networ

Four national organisations have written to transport minister Jesse Norman urging him to prohibit pavement parking across England and Wales after what they regard as years of inaction from the government.  Living Streets, Guide Dogs, the British Parking Association (BPA) and the Local Government Association (LGA) have co-authored a letter highlighting the danger they say pavement parking poses to vulnerable pedestrians.  The organisations argue that people living with sight loss or

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2018 will be revealed at a gala ceremony held in London during March by the comedian Lucy Porter. The competition is free to enter and, as is now traditional, the deadline for submissions has been extended to Monday 8 January. According to Time Out, Lucy Porter “is one of the most talented comics on the circuit”. Having had 11 Edinburgh Fringe shows and international tours, Lucy is a well-established and loved comedian. On TV, she has

Parking operators are increasingly engaging with motorists in the digital domain, and this is something that their representative bodies will also have to do. This was a key message delivered by the International Parking Community (IPC) at its 2017 annual conference.  IPC chief executive Will Hurley urged delegates to embrace new technologies and new opportunities with confidence. “Recognising responsibilities and securing the insight required to take change in one’s stride are

Kettering General Hospital’s new car parking deck opened on 1 December. The new deck provides 240 additional car parking spaces in the hospital’s Car Park B – boosting that car park’s overall capacity to 471. The steel-framed deck was manufactured and erected by Fast Park System. CP Plus took over management of the Northamptonshire trust’s car parks from 16 October. The trust has reduced charges for patients parking for less than four hours and introduced automati

Students from Cornwall College have won a landscaping competition run by parking company Indigo that has seen a lightwell at Derriford Hospital transformed into a meeting space for patients and visitors. The Lightwell Design Competition was organised by Indigo with the aim of improving the patient and visitor experience by transforming what was an untended space near the main entrance to the hospital.  The students from Cornwall College worked with Indigo’s head groundskeeper, Emma

All five council-run car parks in Loughborough town centre have secured the Park Mark award under the Safer Parking Scheme. The accredited car parks are Beehive Lane, Granby Street, Browns Lane, Southfields Road and Southfields Road offices. Beehive Lane has held the accreditation for 13 years, while the others have secured it for the past nine years. This year Granby Street Car Park was also awarded a Disabled Parking Accreditation (DPA) from Disabled Motoring UK. This popular town centre car

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2018 will be revealed on Friday 8 March by the comedian Lucy Porter. Parking Review launched the British Parking Awards in 2002. Now in their 17th year, the annual competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The competition is 

Tesco has become the first supermarket company to adopt the Disabled Parking Accreditation (DPA), developed by Disabled Motoring UK. The DPA is a not-for-profit accreditation that focuses on improving the personal mobility of disabled motorists by recognising off-street parking facilities that are accessible to disabled people. It also identifies car park operators that actively set out to manage and reduce the abuse of parking spaces provided for disabled motorists. The DPA is managed for Dis

An NHS trust has teamed up with a procurement company to offer the public sector a comprehensive package of car park development services. Procurement firm Pagabo has developed the four-year framework for the design, build, finance and operation (DBFO) of car park projects. Simon Toplass, chief executive officer of Pagabo, said: “The Total Car Park Solutions Framework offers flexible solutions across the board. As far as we know there is no other framework available for a solution like ou

Q: How will self-driving cars change the way in which towns and cities manage parking? Q: How can local authorities create electric vehicle charging facilities that are both environmentally and financially sustainable? Q: Will local authority parking teams be key players in tackling poor air quality caused by vehicle pollution in town and city centres? Q: What are the data protection rules that apply when rolling out cashless payment, virtual permits and other digital parking services? Q: Ho

The need to recognise how quickly technology is evolving, and the way this is changing driver behaviour, emerged as a key theme at 18th European Parking Association (EPA) Congress. The benefits of harmonising standards and protocols across borders was also a recurring motif of the biennial event, which took place in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam from 20-22 September.  The three-day event saw a number of initiatives developed and showcased in the main conference and at a number of break-

The International Parking Community (IPC) has formalised its partnership with the People’s Parking accreditation scheme for car parks. The accreditation scheme is now being adopted as an IPC standard, and the scheme’s founder, Helen Dolphin will be representing the evolving interests of consumers for the IPC’s steering committee. The scheme highlights car parks that provide spaces for visitors with a disability and parents with children. It also promotes charging points for e

The active enforcement of supermarket parking bays designated for people with disabilities reduces their misuse, reveals a survey conducted by the charity Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK). Overall levels of disabled parking abuse came in at 18.5% across the supermarkets surveyed. Where enforcement was used this figure fell to 15.6% and where no enforcement was evident the overall level of observed abuse rose to 21.5%. The supermarket with the lowest levels of disabled parking abuse was Sainsbury&rs

Parking Review magazine has launched the 2018 edition of the British Parking Awards. Now in their 17th year, the competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The awards encompass both the on-street and off-street sides of the parking sector. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition has categories that cover buildings, technology and people. Bri

Projects to improve the Blue Badge parking schemes, trials of autonomous vehicles and more accessible toilets on trains are among initiatives the government is backing to improve transport for people with disabilities. The Department for Transport (DfT) has published its draft accessibility action plan, which is now out to consultation. The department said it wants to hear views and ideas on how to best improve accessibility on roads, rail, water and in the air. The consultation runs unti

Campaigners from the charity Guide Dogs went to Downing Street to hand in a petition signed by more than 31,000 people calling on the government to introduce a new law to end problem pavement parking The charity said that cars parked on pavements are dangerous for pedestrians, especially people with sight loss, who are particularly affected as they can be forced into oncoming traffic that they cannot see. It said pavement parking also effects parents with pushchairs, wheelchair users and other

Essex has emerged as a model of partnership working when it comes to parking management and enforcement. The boroughs and districts have entered into two formal alliances – the North Essex Parking Partnership and South Essex Parking Partnership – in order to pool their knowledge, management and buying power. The partnerships are also committed to the use of in-house frontline staff, coordinating on-street and off-street parking and working across boundaries. However, there was a peri

Over 10,000 people signed petition on a single day calling on the government to stop problem pavement parking. The petition, launched by charity Guide Dogs, urges the government to make pavement parking illegal, except in certain areas allowed by local councils.  The Pavement Parking Petition Day on 19 June built on previous Guide Dogs campaigns on the issue, such as the campaign being a guest petition on the website Mumsnet. Cars parked on pavements pose a serious danger to people with s

A common problem for many disabled motorists is not being able to park at their desired destination, especially at their local supermarket. A frequent complaint is that the disabled bays are all occupied with cars not displaying a Blue Badge. Disabled Motoring UK is currently undertaking the 2017 edition of its Baywatch survey, which assesses levels of abuse of disabled parking spaces at supermarkets. The survey and further information about Baywatch can be found by clicking here The Baywat

The British Parking Association (BPA) has published a ‘Manifesto for Parking’ to ensure parking has a central place in government policy-making after the General Election. The BPA’s chief executive Andrew Pester said: “As the recognised authority in the parking sector, the BPA is driving change and we want commitment from the next government to act to ensure a smarter and more sustainable future for everyone.” The BPA said it wants to see more consistency in the wa

The Disabled Parking Accreditation (DPA) has been awarded a Certification Mark by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the official UK government body that is responsible for patents, designs and trademarks. The DPA scheme, which was launched by Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) in 2014, recognises off-street parking facilities that are accessible to disabled motorists.  A certification mark is a specific type of trademark that provides a guarantee that the goods or services bearing the mark

Parking is an emotive and potentially sensitive aspect of hospital life, but an NHS trust in the West Midlands is working to take the stress out of finding a space. Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust faced a parking conundrum that is all too familiar for hospital management teams all over the country: not enough car parking spaces to meet the demand from staff and visitors.  The trust is responsible for delivering healthcare services for well over 500,000 local people. It emp

Parking payment systems have been upgraded at three hospitals within the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The new pay-on-foot systems have been installed at North Tyneside General Hospital (NTGH) in North Shields, Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSECH) in Cramlington and at the Wansbech General Hospital. The hospitals have been equipped with Designa’s ABACUS parking system comprising ANPR cameras linked to entrance and exit barriers and payment terminals. All t

The cost of parking at hospitals hit the headlines during the General Election when Labour announced it would scrap parking fees at NHS sites in England. Whether or not to charge fees is a decision for individual NHS trusts in England. In contrast, hospital parking fees were abolished in Scotland and Wales in 2008, although a number of hospitals still charge where they have contracts with private parking companies. Parking may be charged for in Northern Ireland. Speaking in Worcester on 7 May t

Parking and property professionals have long lived by the mantra ‘location, location, location’. But while location remains important, the era of data analytics and connected cars means information and communication will soon be the most important factors for developers, retailers and parking operators. Parking and places in the era of connected cars will be central themes at Parking & Property 2017. The line-up of speakers includes experts in retail trends, property development

NHS trusts in England are making the process of paying for parking by patients and visitors more difficult than it should be, claims the RAC. Data collected by the motoring organisation suggests that four-in-10 hospital trusts in England that charge for parking offer no option to pay by credit or debit card at any of their sites, while a third do not allow drivers to pay-on-exit. The data was collected via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent by the RAC to the 206 hospital trusts in Eng

Home to the West End, Oxford Street and a host of landmarks, Westminster City Council attracts a lot of traffic. It has just 10,000 public street parking spaces, which means it has long been on the leading edge when it comes to parking, pioneering concepts such as cashless parking, using bay sensors to monitor street parking activity and adopting a marshalling approach to kerbside management. Besides managing congestion and making efficient use of limited public parking, the city council is look

There is a common perception that all a town or city centre needs to do to thrive is to provide ample, free parking. But encouraging people to visit a particular high street or shopping centre is a more complex equation. I recently held a business focus group and workshop to try and identify some of the major challenges facing the town centre. I’m sure many places would be able to identify with the issues that came up. Firstly, I asked: “What is the biggest challenge facing the town

Parking & Property 2017 8 June: 15 Hatfields, London Parking & Property is the only annual event dedicated to off-street parking. Over the past 7 years the conference has provided a forum for debate and sharing best practice among public and private sector car park owners and operators, developers, planners and companies supplying design and equipment services. The conference content is developed by Nigel Williams, managing director of Parking Matters, and Mark Moran, editor of

Parking projects that seek to make the lives of children safer and easier where among the winners at the British Parking Awards 2017, which took place on Friday 10 March. Kent County Council won the Front Line Award for its Responsible Parking Squad initiative. The council has devised a toolkit of materials and techniques that can be used by pupils at secondary schools to tackle the problem of dangerous parking and driving, especially during the school run. The London Borough of Wandsworth rec

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2017 will be revealed at an awards ceremony in London on 10 March. The British Parking Awards were launched by Parking Review magazine in 2002 to recognise achievement and best practice in the design and management of parking. With winners selected by a jury of their peers, the British Parking Parking Awards logo and trophy have become a respected and coveted mark of excellence among parking professionals. Below we provide a guide to the finalists. Par

The London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley have jointly awarded APCOA a new 10-year parking contract. The new arrangements, which will start in April 2017, will help to further harmonise the procedures and processes of both authorities and produce efficiency savings.  Bromley and Bexley became a shared service in 2013. To date, these authorities have utilised the services of separate contractors to undertake parking enforcement and other related duties while existing contracts ran their ter

Visitors to hospitals were issued an estimated £13.3m in parking fines last year according to a FOI request by online parking place YourParkingSpace.co.uk. The parking charge notices (PCNs) issued at NHS sites ranged in price from £10 to £100. The company’s analysis, based on 136 NHS trust responses, showed that one in ten of the 159,000 tickets issued were appealed, of which two-thirds were successfully overturned. “The chances of successfully appealing a ticket

A growing population and increasing number of cars on the Isle of Wight will need to be tackled with more consistent parking enforcement and pricing measures, new payment systems and measures to better balance the supply and demand of spaces. Isle of Wight Council’s executive has agreed a parking strategy developed by consultant White Young Green, whose recommendations are based on public consultation, spoke to town and parish councils, business associations and transport operators. The c

The long list of entries to the British Parking Awards 2017 has been unveiled. This year the competition has attracted over 90 submissions that are now being assessed by the jury.The British Parking Awards encompass the worlds of traffic management, architecture, enforcement, technology and property.This year there are entries from local authorities, commercial operators, rail companies, universities, retailers, consruction companies, equipment suppliers and many others. To see the 2017 entry li

The Sustainable Transport & Health Summit is the key event and showcase of 2017 for transport, parking, public health and urban professionals involved in delivering active lifestyles that help make healthier places. The UK government recognises the important role of transport in building healthy places where people want to work and live and has committed to supporting sustainable travel initiatives. The government has made significant funding available for sustainable travel – some &po

The Northern Ireland Executive is seeking ways of making the renewal process for Blue Badge holders with life-long mobility issues simpler and more accessible. Department for Infrastructure minister Chris Hazzard said: “For many people with life-long mobility issues, the Blue Badge is a lifeline ‎enabling them to integrate in the community and go about many of the daily routines many of us take for granted. “Many of these badge holders have conditions which are unlikely to chang

The efficient management of the kerbside and roadspace is essential to the health, wealth and vitality of urban centres. These were central themes of Parking World 2016, which took place in London on 24 November.  Over 250 people attended Parking World to listen to a programme featuring over 50 speakers from across UK and Europe. There were presentations by local authorities, academics, consultants, architects, technologists, campaigners and contractors. The programme was devised by Mark

Building work has begun on a new £10m multi-storey car park at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI).  Businessman Sir Ian Wood and his family pledged the new car park through their charitable body The Wood Foundation, which funded the 1,000-space patient and visitor car park. There are currently only 748 spaces at ARI, despite the hospital receiving around 5,000 visits a day. This has led to traffic problems at the hospital. The eight-level car park has been designed by JM Architects and

The British Parking Awards 2017 are open for entries. The annual competition recognises excellence in parking policy, design and management. The awards span the on-street and off-street parking sectors, encompassing the planning, design and management of both structures and operations. There are also categories that recognise the achievements of individuals and teams working in the parking sector. The awards also categories that recognise innovative systems and business approaches. The categor

The efficient management of the kerbside and roadspace is essential to the health, wealth and vitality of urban centres. This will be a central theme of Parking World 2016, which takes place at the Kia Oval in London on 24 November.  There will be sessions on: the provision and regulation of parking in town and city centres; the workplace parking levy concept; fighting Blue Badge fraud; and the development of online parking payment and booking services. To book your place click here (Quot

Over 200 car parks now hold a Disabled Parking Accreditation (DPA) under a scheme launched by Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK). The charity says that take-up of the accreditation has gathered momentum since the British Parking Association (BPA) started administering the scheme in April. To achieve a DPA car park owners and operators must implement management strategies to ensure that there is enforcement and appropriate provision of disabled bays, as well as adequate facilities for their disabled cu

Tension and conflict over parking spaces provided the drama in the latest run of Parking Wars on ITV. For this third series, the Century Films production team toured the country looking at places where parking restrictions and new payment regimes were causing concern among motorists, local businesses and visitors. The camera crews followed local authority civil enforcement officers (CEOs) as they patrolled the streets in different parts of the country. Reports from Hereford, Romford and Havering

Blue Badge holders in Northern Ireland can now apply for the parking concession permits online through the NIDirect website. The site enables applicants to upload evidence of entitlements and photos. Payment can also be made online. The Department for Infrastructure hopes this will be a more efficient system and so help reduce a backlog of Blue Badge applications. Northern Ireland roads minister Chris Hazzard said: “In this modern age, online transactions are the norm and this new online

Northgate Public Services (NPS) has launched an enforcement and permits management solution designed for local authorities, housing associations and hospitals managing car parks. The NPS TaP system encompasses both parking permits and the issue and processing of charge notices against vehicles that breach regulations. NPS runs a number of transport and ticketing schemes including the national HGV Levy and Blue Badge schemes, as well as being the IT supplier for London Tribunals, which adjudica

Disabled drivers are all too used to finding bays designated for their use occupied by cars belonging to people with no mobility issues. In a bid to show how this selfish behaviour affects the lives of disabled people, on 8 August a council blocked kerbside spaces in a High Street with wheel chairs. The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead staged the intervention on Ascot High Street to raise awareness of people without Blue Badges about the impact of parking in disabled bays. Windsor &a

Blue Badge theft trebled over a three year period, according to the Local Government Association (LGA). This increase marks a rise in thefts for the third year running, with 656 recorded in 2013. Thefts of Blue Badges went up a further 26% from 1,620 in 2014 to 2,056 in 2015. More than two million disabled people use Blue Badges for free parking in pay & display bays and for up to three hours on yellow lines. In London, badge holders are exempt from the congestion charge saving them around

Reading Borough Council is to install real-time sensors across all of its on-street disabled bays as part of a European Union research project called SIMON. SIMON (asSIsted Mobility for Older aNd impaired users) is a project that aims to use ICT services to promote the independent living and social participation of mobility impaired people by giving them information and access to public parking areas and multiple transport modes. The SIMON Mobile app enables disabled citizens to validate their

Winchester City Council is the first local authority in the south of England to receive the Disabled Parking Accreditation (DPA). The accreditation covers four car parks – Jewry Street, Middle Brook Street, Tower Street and South Winchester Park & Ride. Richard Hein, head of parking services, said: “This accreditation reflects the city council’s commitment to providing high levels of customer service to all and its ongoing investment in its car park stock.”  Th

Westminster City Council Parking Services won the Innovation in Technology prize at the Corporate IT Forum’s Real IT Awards 2016. The council picked up the prize for its use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to help disabled residents in Westminster find a place to park. Westminster provides around 200 individually assigned parking bays for disabled residents close to their homes. The council wanted to find a solution for the problem of other motorists occupying spaces,

Where parking is located and how spaces are managed will be transformed as the way in which we travel to, from and within urban centres changes. As cars and customers become more connected, the era of Intelligent Mobility will see the role and form of parking facilities evolve. Ultimately, the distinctions between on-street and off-street parking will become blurred. These are some of the predictions of Theo Thuis, chief operating officer of Q-Park, a parking management company that operates ac

Parking and property experts from across Europe will meet in London on 12 May to discuss the changing relationship between motorists, their vehicles, and how they park. The annual Parking & Property event will also explore how retailers and shopping centre owners are making parking facilities a positive part of the shopping experience by creating more attractive facilities and using parking as part of their marketing and loyalty programmes. Over the past six years Parking & Property ha

A Blue Badge is a vital lifeline for many disabled people. Without a Blue Badge many disabled people would be stuck in their homes and would be totally dependent on others for help. This is why Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) takes Blue Badge fraud very seriously.  A person who does not need a Blue Badge occupying a disabled bay unnecessarily is one less space for a genuine holder to use. If a disabled person cannot park at their desired destination they will often just have to go home without

Parking and property experts from across Europe will meet in London on 12 May to discuss the changing relationship between drivers and their vehicles in the era of online commerce, connected cars and Intelligent Mobility. The annual Parking & Property event will also explore how retailers are making parking a positive part of the shopping experience. The day’s content has been developed by Nigel Williams, managing director of Parking Matters, and Mark Moran, editor of Parkin

Operation Blue Bird is a multi-agency response to the misuse of Blue Badges in East Sussex. The project has received support from central government, which is keen to see its innovative ideas shared. There are approximately 13,000 badges on issue in Brighton & Hove and 24,000 badges on issue in East Sussex.  The councils concerns about the misuse of the Blue Badge, depriving entitled badge holders of their parking concessions, had seen the development of an informal partnership develo

Drivers in the London Borough of Croydon are being urged to remain vigilant to the threat of bogus websites that promise to ease the Blue Badge application process but in reality leave their victims without the badge, and out of pocket. The south London council closed down one such Blue Badge application website - http://bluebadgeonline.org - after complaints from disgruntled motorists.

Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) has agreed that the British Parking Association (BPA) will administer its Disabled Parking Award (DPA).  The DPA was launched in June 2014 with the aim of improving parking for disabled people and reducing abuse of disabled spaces. In order to qualify for the scheme DMUK requires car park owners and operators to meet a number of 

A new RAC report on parking, motorists came out in favour of a pay-on-exit solution for parking in hospitals. Of the 1,217 motorists surveyed, 63% favoured paying for parking when exiting the car park that removes the requirement and stress of having to return to their cars to top-up their parking. RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: “Our research shows that ease of payment is an issue for hospital visitors. The vast majority of people surveyed by the RAC would like to see car parks where

Parking charges at hospitals in England have been voted the most disliked of all parking fees in a survey carried out by motoring organisation the RAC. There was also a clear majority in favour of pay-at-exit being the norm at hospitals. Some 64% of motorists said that hospital parking charges were the most unwelcome, way ahead of the next most unpopular which were private parking charges made at some supermarkets, shopping centres and other private car parks; only 12% of those questioned cited

The best of British parking was celebrated today when comedian Hal Cruttenden revealed the winners of the 15th British Parking Awards at the Lancaster London Hotel. Over 500 people from across the worlds of car park design, construction, management and technology attended the event. The awards showcased excellence in the design of parking facilities, exceptional customer service and innovative thinking. This year projects that deliver real benefit to local communities made a particular impa

One of the most important campaigns run by Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) is encouraging local authorities to make sure that the Blue Badge Scheme is properly administered and enforced. There are now 2.39 million Blue Badges held in England, which is 4.4% of the population. This figure has decreased each year since the reforms of the Blue Badge application process in 2011/12.  DMUK took part in these reforms and is pleased that the decrease in the number of badges being issued suggests they a

The internal decks at the multi-storey car park at Blackpool Victoria Hospital have been waterproofed two years after the roof deck was treated.  Specialist contractor Thelwell Flooring initially applied a waterproofing system to the car park’s exposed top deck. Two years later, the company was re-commissioned to give the structure’s five intermediate decks a waterproofing coating.  “The biggest challenge with this was that the car park was already in use and it had

The Scottish Office has confirmed that an amendment to the Scotland Bill will transfer powers to ban footway parking to Holyrood. The amendment means Scottish Government can introduce future legislation making it illegal for vehicles to obstruct pavements and dropped kerbs and double park on public roads. The current SNP government has already committed to banning footway parking and recently an influential cross party committee identified the need for new legislation. Further action on the is

Former soldier Duncan Slater has joined the charity Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) as its external affairs manager. A key part of his role is to manage DMUK’s Disabled Parking Award, an accreditation for car parks to achieve which show disabled people that they are accessible. Slater will also work with other organisations and the government to promote accessibility for disabled people. One of DMUK’s current campaigns is about improving the accessibility of independent refuelling at p

Liverpool City Region (LCR) has completed the installation of 28 of electric vehicle (EV) charge points. They constitute the first phase of Recharge, the combined authority’s scheme to encourage the public and the local authorities to simultaneously decrease their carbon footprints. Merseytravel, the executive body that provides professional, strategic and operational transport advice to the LCR is responsible for coordinating Recharge bids and projects. 

The finalists of the British Parking Awards 2016 have been revealed by Parking Review magazine, which has organised the competition since 2002.  To see the list click here The winners will be revealed by the actor and comedian Hal Cruttenden at a gala lunch to be held at the Lancaster London London on Friday 4 March. The finalists come from across the public and private parking sectors, and encompass on-street and off-street parking operations. Besides the competitive categories, there

A number of hospital trusts in England make more than £3m a year from parking fees, according to research by the Press Association (PA).  The news agency sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to trusts across England. Ninety trusts responded to FOI requests, of which half said that they are making at least £1m a year. Seven NHS trusts earned more than £3m in 2014-15 from charges, another eight made more than £2m a year and a further 33 earned more than £

A hospital in Portsmouth has adopted a parking management system that links ANPR cameras to pay & display terminals to create a barrier-free ‘pay-for-stay’ operation.  The solution allows drivers to pay on return rather than trying to estimate how long they will be at appointments. St Mary’s Community Health Campus, which is part of NHS Solent, delivers dermatology, dietetics, maternity and rehabilitation services. It is the first NHS site to adopt the ANPR system,

Over 80 entries are competing in the British Parking Awards 2016, the annual competition organised by Parking Review magazine.  The entries come from across the public and private parking sectors, and encompasses on-street and off-street parking operations. The competition has categories devoted to the built environment and parking technology, but also recognises achievements by individuals and teams working in parking. Besides the competitive categories, there will be special awards suc

Imagine, for a moment, a time when your residents and visitors are able to trade with your local community, visit local landmarks, shops and attractions without fear of inadvertently falling foul of local regulations.  Envisage that when genuine mistakes do occur, visitors and residents are left with a positive feeling about local services and how they are managed. If we dare to dream of a world where no penalties are needed, it might actually happen. The delivery of core services, and pa

Westminster City Council is to trial using its street bay sensor technology to discourage the illegal use of disabled parking bays. Disabled drivers can now be issued with electronic permits, known as EPermits, or RFID tags which communicate with the sensors set into the road.

The British Parking Awards have established a reputation for selecting witty and engaging hosts. Next year's ceremony, which takes place in London on Friday 4 March 2016, will be compered by the comedian Hal Cruttenden. Cruttenden is a familiar face on TV, with appearances on Have I Got News for you, The Royal Variety Performance, Live at the Apollo, Would I Lie To You?, Sunday Night at the Palladium, The Great British Bake Off: Extra Slice, Mock The Week, Celebrity Squares and Pointless Celebr

Helen Dolphin, director of policy and campaigns for the charity Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK), received her MBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace last month. She was recognised for her services to disabled people in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Dolphin is to become an independent mobility consultant at the end of the year having worked DMUK for eight years. During her career she has: helped reform the national Blue Badge scheme; introduced the Disabled Parking Award, a parking stan

A new accreditation scheme for parking operations has been launched by the British Parking Association (BPA), with the aim of helping organisations improve the quality of their parking services. The Professionalism in Parking Accreditation (PiPA) was launched at the House of Commons yesterday. The accreditation is for entire organisations rather than specific car parks, meaning all sites belonging to an operator or landowner are covered. The scheme is initially being marketed in the healthcare

Bedford Hospital has retained the Park Mark award for its car parks under the national Safer Parking Scheme. The facilities, managed by APCOA Parking (UK), met the requirements of a risk assessment conducted by the local police. The assessment covered the management of the car parks, crime recording and statistics, vehicular and pedestrian access and provision of lighting and signage. Steve Morgan. support services director for Bedford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “The management and staff

Oxford Street is the retail heart of London. While the street itself is open only to buses and taxis, and most shoppers arrive by public transport, there are those who choose or need to drive to the area. A public car park close to the heart of Oxford Street is the underground facility located in Cavendish Square, just behind the landmark John Lewis department store. The Cavendish Square car park one of a group of 13 Westminster City Council sites that Q-Park took over in 2011. Since then Q-Par

Patient transport ambulances arriving at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage have been fitted with tags that automatically raise parking barriers. Up until now, Omni Healthcare vehicles arriving at the car park serving the East and North Herts NHS Trust site had to either wait for the barriers to be raised or use either a proximity card or ‘chipcoin’ to activate the barriers. Omni Healthcare has worked with VINCI Park UK, which operates the Lister’s car parks, and payment system

The London Borough of Croydon is making it easier for people to report Blue Badge fraud online. The form, which is on the council website, asks for details of the vehicle involved, and what type of fraud is suspected, such as theft, misuse or alteration of the permit. The council has made stamping out Blue Badge fraud a priority. In recent months it has proven seven cases of fraud in the courts.  A new case is currently being prepared for prosecution and a further 15 cases are under inves

APCOA Parking (UK) has signed new combined parking and security contracts with two NHS Trusts in Bedfordshire. Bedford Hospital NHS Trust has awarded APCOA a five-year parking and security services’ contract, following a competitive tender process. APCOA now manages parking serving the hospital’s north and south wing, as well as 24-hour on-site security.  APCOA said it will be installing ANPR infrastructure for staff parking areas and introducing a new electronic staff permit

At a time when the government is cutting spending on the Welfare State, it is hard to argue for free car parking at NHS hospitals as this would inevitably have a knock-on impact on revenue streams and, in turn, the subsequent investment they can make in healthcare provision. This is not, however, a licence to charge patients, visitors, staff and contractors unreasonable sums for parking in hospital car parks. The government has made this clear by issuing guidance notes for parking at NHS hospita

The relationship between the car and the city very much at the heart of this year’s Parking World event, which takes place at the KIA Oval. Over the past 11 years the annual conference and exhibition, programmed by the Parking Review team, has taken a wide-ranging and thought-provoking approach that recognises parking is variously a key transport policy and traffic management tool, a public service and a business activity. Parking World is the backbone of a major ‘Intelligent City M

The theft of Blue Badges has more than doubled in the past 12 months, figures produced by local authorities reveal. The Local Government Association (LGA) said thefts in England have increased from 656 in 2013 to 1,756 in 2014, a rise of 167%. More than two million disabled people use Blue Badges for free parking in pay & display bays and for up to three hours on yellow lines. In London, badge holders are exempt from the congestion charge, saving them around £2,500 a year. Anyone fra

APCOA Parking (UK) has been awarded a two-year contract extension to provide security and parking services for Luton and Dunstable University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. APCOA took over the security operations and car park management at the hospital in September 2013 as part of a two-phase service implementation. Around six months later APCOA assumed responsibility for parking enforcement across the campus. The Trust has now extended APCOA’s security and parking management contract, m

The story of a new mother who found a parking penalty issued to her car in a hospital car park has become an online sensation in Australia. The unnamed woman had spent several days at the bedside of her sick nine-week old son, who was being treated the Canberra Hospital in New South Wales. When her son was discharged from the hospital, she returned to her car to find a parking ticket on her windscreen. But there was also a pink Post-It note with the message that read: “I saw your car had

Northwick Park Hospital in London has been awarded a three-year Park Mark. The 512-space car park, which is open 24 hours day, records some 408,000 vehicle movements a year. The car park is owned by the London North West NHS Trust and operated by APCOA Parking (UK). The car park is a barrier-controlled facility that is covered by CCTV and APCOA staff regularly patrols of the four-level facility. Robert Masdin, Ealing-based crime prevention officer and Park Mark assessor – said APCOA&rsq

Assist-Mi, an app that provides assistance to disabled people when they are travelling, has raised over £50,000 via a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The app is designed to enable disabled people to alert service providers to their presence as and when they are visiting shops, businesses, leisure facilities and other destinations. The aim is to make activities such as parking, buying petrol, using trains, shopping or attending business meetings hassle-free. Assist-Mi is the brainchil

Helen Dolphin, director of policy and campaigns for the charity Disabled Motoring UK, was made an MBE for her services to disabled people in this year’s Queens Birthday Honours. She has worked at the organisation for eight years and, in that time, has: helped reform the national Blue Badge scheme; introduced a parking standard that recognises car parks which provide excellent facilities for disabled people – the DPA; worked with the UK petroleum industries authority to make getting

Imagine each time an able-bodied person attempts to park in a disabled parking bay a person with disabilities was able to challenge them. This is what is happening in car parks across Moscow. The “More than a Sign” campaign sees holograms of people in wheel chairs projected into designated disabled parking bays when a car not displaying a disabled parking badge attempts to use them. To see the system in action click here The hologram system is the brainchild of Yuri Kovalev, founde

Q-Park has received an award in recognition of its work to make a major London car park accessible to wheel chair users for the first time in its 50-year history. A new glazed lift was commissioned at the car park that lies beneath the historic Cavendish Square behind John Lewis on Oxford Street.  Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) presented the operator with a Disabled Parking Award at the official opening of the lift on 30 April. Helen Dolphin, DMUK’s director of policy and campaigns, sai

Aberdeen Royal Infirmary looks set to receive a new multi-storey car park following a donation of £10m by a businessman. The sum, pledged by The Wood Foundation is one of the largest single charitable donations ever made to the NHS in Scotland. The Wood Foundation, set up by Scottish businessman Sir Ian Wood and his family, was founded in 2007 to invest in economic, community and enterprise initiatives that develop and support individuals to become caring and contributing members of socie

The enforcement of parking on private land, the ‘Sharing Economy’, ‘Connected Cars’ the benchmarking of accessible parking bays and Life Care Plans are just some of the many themes being discussed at Parking & Property 2015.  The annual conference is the only UK event focussed purely on the off-street parking sector. The event is programmed by Mark Moran, editor of Parking Review, and Nigel Williams, managing director of the Parking Matters consultancy. A centr

Total Car Parks has won its first NHS contract. The company will manage the patient and visitor car park at the West Berkshire Community Hospital in Thatcham. The hospital is part of the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. In-house staff previously patrolled the car park, on London Road. It has 158 parking spaces, including 16 disabled bays and a designated area for motorcycles. Total Car Parks has installed three new Metric Elite pay & display machines and also offers customers the

APCOA Parking (UK) customer service advisors at a Northamptonshire Hospital raised over £100 for Comic Relief on Red Nose Day. The team at Kettering General Hospital wore red noses when patrolling the hospital campus in the week running up the telethon on 13 March. Pictured are Donna Goodman, Daniel Spencer and Susan Knight.

Two projects that seek to educate parents on how to park in a considerate manner around schools were among the winners of the British Parking Awards 2015. The South East Parking Group and Kent County Council received a Special Jury Prize for its Safer Parking Project, while Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety won the Parking in the Community Award. Both initiatives have engaged directly with school children, teachers and parents in a bid to reduce the risk posed by dangerous parking. Oth

Yeovil District Hospital has streamlined parking operations  by removing the original barrier system at its main car park and replacing it with an ANPR system, to relieve congestion.  The ANPR system and its associated signage has been installed at two locations in the 145-space P1 car park in the car parks. A second car park (P2) has been created consisting of 43 spaces and three ambulance waiting zones. The system was installed, operated and maintained by ParkingEye. It allows visit

Nursing staff have collected thousands of signatures on a petition calling for more parking provision at the soon to be opened £842m South Glasgow Hospitals campus. The facility on the site of the Southern General will have parking for 3,500 vehicles. It will be home to several specialist services with up to 10,000 NHS staff based there when it comes into operation. The South Glasgow University Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children are expected to be operational by mid-June.

The short list for the British Parking Awards 2015 has been published. The winners of the annual competition will be revealed by Ade Adepitan, the Paralympic wheelchair basketball player and TV presenter, at the Lancaster Hotel in London on Friday 6 March. The awards, which have been organised by Parking Review since 2002, recognise excellence and achievement in the parking sector. To see the short list click here The competition encompasses many aspects of the parking sector, with categ

Mandy Ainsworth has left the parking sector to join the NHS South CSU (commissioning support unit) as performance lead. This represents a return to Ainsworth’s roots; she joined Worthing’s parking team in 2007 having spent eight years as monitoring manager at Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust. At Worthing she was handed the task of implementing parking enforcement. In 2008 her remit was extended to manage Worthing’s car parks and its contract with NCP. Later that sam

Stratford International Station’s multi-storey car park has received the Disabled Parking Award (DPA) following an assessment by the charity Disabled Motoring UK. Stratford International is owned by HS1, which has the 30-year concession to own and operate High Speed 1, the first section of the UK’s high-speed rail network. The car park is managed by CP Plus, which also manages car parks on behalf of HS1 at Ebbsfleet International, Ashford International and St Pancras International.

Innovative thinking and a commitment to best practice are very much in evidence in the 100-plus entries we have received for this year’s British Parking Awards. The challenge facing the jury over the next two months will be whittling down this impressive list of entries into a short list which will be debated at length. The winners, to be revealed by Paralympian and TV presenter Ade Adepitan in London on 6 March, will represent the best of the best in British parking today. To see the fu

Hospitals should review their parking tariffs and concessions. They should also use pay-on-exit rather than pay & display parking systems, which encourage patients and visitors to overpay for the parking they need. These are key recommendations of a report produced by the Conservative group on the Greater London Authority (GLA). The report, called Pay and Dismay: Parking at London Hospitals, has been produced by Andrew Boff, leader of the GLA Conservative Group and deputy chair of the GLA He

Ade Adepitan, television presenter and Paralympic wheelchair basketball player, will present the British Parking Awards, which take place at the Lancaster Hotel in London on Friday 6 March. Having survived polio as a youngster, Ade Adepitan has gone on to compete as a wheelchair basketball player on an international level and has since built up a wealth of broadcasting experience. An instantly recognisable face, Ade traverses the world for BBC World’s The Travel Show and is a reporter on

Drivers are being offered advice on their rights and responsibilities via a new leaflet and website produced by the British Parking Association (BPA) and Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK). The Know Your Parking Rights campaign aims to help motorists understand their rights and responsibilities when it comes to parking. Research undertaken for the BPA shows that over half (51%) of motorists think the process of appealing is confusing. The research also highlighted that 50% of motorists in the UK say t

Gary McFarlane, an entrepreneur who has developed parking systems, was named in the Power 100 List of Britain’s Most Influential People with a Disability or Impairment. McFarlane is listed in the Business, Finance and IT section. It recognises his work co-founding the assist-Mi service, an app which offers disabled people the ability to request assistance directly on their smartphone from participating service providers with the click of a button. McFarlane set up assist-Mi with North Ea

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is piloting a smart temperature alert system for detecting icy road conditions housed in a robust road stud. The PATeye Ice Detection system was developed by New Zealand-based lighting company Solar Bright. The system, supplied in the UK by YESSS Electrical, uses a solar powered cat’s eye-style road stud lighting to detect icy road temperatures.  The PATeye has been installed by Northern General Hospital as part of a winter weather-w

Imagine there were roadworks outside your house. Suddenly, there’s nowhere to park and you have friends coming to visit. Would you wait for them to turn up late, having spent an hour touring the area to find somewhere to leave their car? Or would you contact them, apologise profusely for the situation and assure them that you will move your own car off your driveway so that they can have your space? If you didn’t have that option, then you might suggest postponing the visit. I was r

When it appeared 25 years ago, the first edition of Parking Review stated the new title would be a quarterly, but I must admit that back in late 1989 it was not certain that the theme of parking cars would sustain a regular publication. But the reaction to issue 1 was so positive that issue 2 appeared in January 1990 and the magazine was soon established as a bi-monthly, then ten times year, and, before long it was a monthly. Things did not stop there. As early as 1990 we produced a supplement

Parking World 2014 covered a great deal of territory. The tenth Parking Review autumn conference presented delegates with a programme that encompassed themes affecting both on-street and off-street operations and the private and public sectors, including sessions on customer service, the economics of parking and rethinking parking as urban space.  The day commenced with an impassioned talk on the importance of putting people at the heart of parking operations by Jill Fraser, chief executiv

A multi-storey car park has been built at University Hospital Llandough (UHL) in Penarth, south Wales. The £12m car park is designed to provide extra spaces for patients, visitors and staff. The multi-storey, which features a concrete frame and wooden timber façade, replaced surface car parks, which are being redeveloped as the £88m Adult Mental Health Unit by The Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. UHL has suffered from parking problems for a number of years with delay

APCOA Parking (UK) has appointed Shane Farrell to be contract manager for its combined parking and security operation at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton. Farrell, whose career spans nearly 20 years, joined APCOA from Lodge Security, where he worked as a security manager and assistant area manager for the Irish clothing giant Primark. During his three-and-a-half years on-site with the retailer, Farrell managed a number of sites with a combined asset value of over one billion pounds. These ran

A plethora of articles have recently been published in the national press berating parking operators, calling them ‘cowboys’, talking about ‘rip-off’ parking charges and, most insidious of all, publishing photographs of the homes and cars of some of the owners and ex-employees of certain operators.  This has been a real old-fashioned witch-hunt with no attempt to provide balance or even pay lip-service to impartiality. In the September issue of Parking Review, Neil

The Safer Parking Scheme celebrated its tenth birthday by presenting awards during the British Parking Association’s Parkingtopia event in London last month. The new VINCI Park UK multi-storey at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge was named as the Show Car Park, while Northampton Borough Council’s Grosvenor Centre was named Most Improved Car Park.  www.parkmark.co.uk Show Car Park: VINCI Park UK at Addenbrooke's Hospital A new multi-storey car park at Addenbrooke&rsqu

Robot cars, smartphone apps and trend analysis software will all be discussed at Parking World this month. However, the human side of parking will also be very evident at Parking Review’s annual conference, with discussions of how to make hospital parking less stressful and how to influence parents in order to make the school run safer. This is the tenth annual autumn event run by Parking Review, whose editor Mark Moran has programmed the conference. The event offers plenty of scope to ne

Portsmouth City Council’s investigations into Blue Badge fraud featured in a BBC One documentary series last month. The city council’s parking services manager Michael Robertson and fraud investigator Steve Hewett featured in two editions of Street Patrol UK, presented by Dom Littlewood. The programmes showed the parking team tracking down and confronting people misusing the badges intended for disabled people.  Michael Robinson told Littlewood: “If a genuinely disabled

Ways in which parking is becoming smarter and better connected will be key themes at Parking World, with self-driving cars and the shared economy among the topics to be discussed. This is the tenth annual autumn event run by Parking Review, whose editor Mark Moran has programmed the conference. The event offers plenty of scope to network over coffee and lunch in the exhibition. The day will conclude with a drinks reception to mark the 25th anniversary of Parking Review, which was launched in Nov

Inspirational and inventive people working in parking will be recognised in the British Parking Awards 2015, which are launched this month. The annual competition, which has been run by Parking Review magazine since 2002, sees a set of new categories covering parking in the community and sustainability added to classic ones for car park structures, teams and customer service. To enter the British Parking Awards click here The awards recognise excellence in the design, management and deliv

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has told NHS hospitals to cut the cost of parking for certain groups. Trusts should also set parking charges that are reasonable and switch to pay-on-exit, or similar schemes, so motorists pay only for the time they use. The new Department for Health Guidelines say that parking concessions should be offered to: people with disabilities; frequent outpatient attenders; visitors with relatives who are gravely ill or have an extended stay in hospital; and NHS staff whos

Health charities have condemned the tactics used by some private operators at hospital car parks across the country. The Daily Mail claimed “cowboy parking squads’ were targeting cancer patients during hospital appointments for treatments that regularly overran. Laura Keely, campaigns manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “When you are being treated for life-saving cancer treatment at hospital, the last thing you should worry about is how you are going to afford to pay for

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is backing a Daily Express campaign against hospital parking charges.  UKIP’s health spokeswoman Louise Bours said: “Hospital parking charges hit people when they are typically at their most stressed and anxious. It is not just a matter of the financial cost to people – though that can build up for the most dutiful and frequent visitors.  “It is also a matter of having to make sure you have the right change and the worry that s

A new style warning notice is being attached to the cars of suspected Blue Badge abusers in Redbridge, east London. The window notification slips are placed in a plastic wallet and attached to the windscreen by civil enforcement officers (CEOs) working for APCOA. The warning notice informs drivers of both the legislation and potential penalties. Civil enforcement officers (CEOs) record the incident location and driver details and tick one of four boxes if they believe that a badge is being misu

Transport minister Robert Goodwill visited Leeds last month to see how measures designed to tackle Blue Badge fraud are working The minister spent the afternoon with an enforcement team from Leeds City Council on patrol in the city centre. “We have brought in major reforms to crack down on fraudsters abusing Blue Badges,” said Goodwill. “Pretending to be disabled to dodge parking fees and restrictions is plain shameful and prevents those who have genuine need for Blue Badge f

Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions (ICES), a provider of parking enforcement IT services and training, has launched a parking management company called Open Parking. The new company will work with hospitals, universities, retail parks and shopping malls, leisure centres. transport hubs, residential and office developments.  Ashley Bijster, managing director of ICES, said: “Effective parking management is no longer just a case of instruction, signage and enforcement. Providing drive

Ways in which parking is becoming smarter and better connected will be key themes at Parking World, with themes such as a self-driving cars and shared economy being discussed. This is the tenth annual autumn conference run by Parking Review, which is also celebrating its silver jubilee year. The event offers plenty of scope to network over coffee and lunch in the exhibition. The day will conclude with a drinks reception to mark the 25th anniversary of Parking Review, which was launche

St Helens Hospital in Merseyside has installed a new pay-on-foot system to improve visitor and staff car parking. Three pay stations have been installed: one within the hospital’s main reception area; one near to the shop; and a third located near the exit barrier. The parking system has been supplied by WPS. The contract was awarded by VINCI Facilities, a facilities management provider working for the St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and New Hospitals, the site owner

A quarter of visitor attractions in the UK do not provide disabled parking, a survey by charity Vitalise reveals. The survey also found that almost two thirds (63%) of attractions were not fully wheelchair accessible. Only half of the UK's top 100 most-visited attractions responded to Vitalise's request for their basic accessibility information, despite repeated approaches from the charity. Of the venues that responded to the survey, only 13% said a

People are being warned not to pay high fees for disabled Blue Badges through unauthorised websites. Northgate Public Services, which runs the Blue Badge scheme for the Department for Transport since 2012, has discovered that some online services are asking applicants for £49 to apply for a Blue Badge. To make an application for a Blue Badge, which assists disabled people to park more easily, is free, the company says. The only payment required is for the badge, which

Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) has been campaigning for local authorities to enforce the Blue Badge scheme for many years. Blue Badge enforcement is not just about giving tickets to people who have displayed their badge incorrectly, overstayed on a yellow line or parked without a Blue Badge, it’s about making proper checks on all badges being displayed to ensure they are being used by the holder.  Although figures released earlier this year by the Local Government Association (LGA) show

Three Kent hospitals have switched from pay & display to pay-on-foot parking operations. Kent & Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury, William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the QEQM Hospital in Margate have all adopted the Parkeon Varioflex pay-on-foot system. The move means visitors no longer need to estimate the amount of time they need to pay for and risk being ticketed by enforcement officers. The Varioflex system means that people pay at the end of their parking session. John Graham

A scheme designed to accredit car parks that provide good access and facilities for disabled people was launched by the charity Disabled Motoring UK at Parkex 2014. The Disabled Parking Award (DPA) has been devised to encourage improvements in parking for disabled people and reduce abuse of disabled spaces. Car parks that qualify for the award will be listed on a DPA website so disabled customers can search for accessible car parks in their area.  The scheme requires owners/operators to ad

A new multi-storey car park opened at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on 1 June. The £14m car park has added 1,228 spaces for visitors, patients and staff to the parking capacity of the teaching hospital’s extensive campus. The car park forms part of a wider development scheme which is one of the leading biomedical campus in Europe while also serving an increasing local population. The car park has been designed to alleviate demand at the site and provide alternative parki

Blue Badge fraud prosecutions have doubled in three years as councils have stepped up action against motorists abusing the system designed to improve the independence of disabled people by giving them rights to easier parking. New figures from the Department for Transport, published by the Local Government Association (LGA), reveal that the number of people caught abusing the scheme is on the rise, with 686 successful council prosecutions in 2013 – up from 330 in 2010. Stoke-on-Trent Cit

Disabled Motoring UK is the campaigning charity for disabled drivers, passengers and Blue Badge holders. We lobby government and business across the UK in order to improve parking, refuelling and access provision for disabled people, so that they can access the goods and service they need. Do you want to be kept up-to-date on the important issues affecting mobility and disabled people? Our current campaigns include tackling Blue Badge abuse, improving car parks, and making sure disabled people

Civil enforcement officers (CEOs) in Croydon are set to be equipped with bodycams in a bid to reduce confrontations and assaults by the public. The move by the south London council could also apply to CEOs using the devices to target littering offences.  Croydon Council’s community safety team and parking services department are considering supplying in-house CEOs with 10 bodycams, supplied by manufacturer Pinnacle Response, to record exchanges when a penalty charge notice (PCN) is b

Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski has sent an open letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne asking for hospital parking fees to be capped for frequent visitors.  “The average cancer patient commonly spends 60 days a year in hospital receiving treatment, not including follow-up appointments and later hospital visits on the unfortunate event of a relapse,” Kawczynski told the chancellor. “Along with having to cope with the mental and physical pressure of their

The British Parking Awards 2014 are now live. Entries are being accepted for the annual competition, which has been organised by Parking Review magazine since 2002. The competition includes new categories that recognise the achievements of the British parking sector on the international stage and also the world of cycling. The deadine for entries is 18 December. “The awards recognise and celebrate both innovation and best practice across the on-street and off-street parking worlds,&rdquo

The increasing levels of connectivity between the car and urban parking spaces will be a key theme of the Parking World 2013 conference, which takes place in London on Wednesday 13 November. The annual Parking Review event, which is sponsored by Zenco Systems, will also explore issues such as how local authorities are balancing the public service and commercial aspects of running a parking operation. The event will be supported by a major exhibition and is co-located with two seminars – C

The increasing levels of connectivity between the car and urban parking spaces will be a key theme of the 9th Parking World conference, which takes place in London on Wednesday 13 November. The annual Parking Review event, which is sponsored by Zenco Systems, will also explore issues such as how local authorities are balancing the public service and commercial aspects of running a parking operation. There will also be expert discussions of the latest developments in parking and moving traffic e

Portsmouth City Council’s work to prevent Blue Badge Fraud was recognised ay the annual Disabled Motoring UK Awards, held at the Heritage Motor Centre, Warwickshire on 5 September. The DMUK also named Westfield Stratford City as the most accessible car park. The Effective Enforcement Award was open to all local authority and private operators enforcing the Blue Badge Scheme. Portsmouth has conducted multiple Blue Badge fraud investigations, including actions against the use of counterfeit

Anyone running a parking operation will, without exception, face the challenge of providing and enforcing parking access for Blue Badge holders. The Disabled Persons’ Parking Badge Scheme was introduced back in 1971, when Ted ‘the Grocer’ Heath was ensconced in Number 10, probably doing Mike Yarwood impressions, while a combination of hot pants and platform shoes were all the rage. My, admittedly blurred, memories of the Seventies left me with the impression that Orange Badges

APCOA Parking (UK) has appointed Richard Watkiss as its operations manager for the south of England. Watkiss joins APCOA from sports and leisure management organisation Fusion Lifestyle, where he served as a divisional business manager – looking after a portfolio of 22 health and leisure locations with an annual turnover of £20m. He has held various senior operational and commercial roles within the private local authority leisure management sector, and has worked for Nuffield Healt

Four out of 10 Blue Badges are being misused in Waltham Forest, a counter fraud operation has discovered. The specialist team has seized 134 Blue Badges over a 10-month period. On one operation all nine Blue Badges checked by the team were being misused. The majority of the badges seized were being used by the badge holder’s family and friends while 30% were either stolen or fake. The crackdown has led to 11 arrests and the removal of 33 vehicles in the north-east London borough. Eight ca

The Great London Swim takes place in the heart of London’s Docklands on 31 August. Swimmers of all abilities are invited take on the one mile dock-to-dock course in the Royal Victoria Dock. Among those taking up the challenge are Disabled Motoring UK’s policy and campaigns director Helen Dolphin, DMUK trustee Gary McFarlane and his business colleague Neil Herron. Swimmers will set off in waves, running or walking into the water, throughout the day. Live bands create a celebratory

Fraudulent misuse of disabled persons’ Blue Badges is rightly recognised as a serious crime. The National Fraud Authority’s Annual Fraud Report, published in March 2012, includes results from the Department for Transport/BBFI commissioned investigation into Blue Badge abuse. The report’s findings demonstrate that 20% of disabled parking badges in circulation were being misused, with this figure increasing substantially to between 40-60% in busy retail areas. The estimated los

Patrick McDonnell Almost a third of Welsh councils charge Blue Badge users at council run car parks, according to a Freedom of Information request by the Welsh National party Plaid Cymru. Blue Badge holders are expected to pay at car parks in Denbighshire, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire, Swansea, Caerphilly and the multi-storey in Newport. The charity Disability Wales said the charges come at a time when disabled people could least afford it as they faced benefit cuts and we

A photo of George Osbourne getting into a Range Rover parked in a disabled bay became one of the most controversial images of the past few months. News that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had abused a bay reserved for people with impaired mobility became a lightning rod for critics of the government’s decision to cut a range of benefits. The shot was taken just days ahead of the enactment of significant cuts in welfare benefits, including those received by disabled people. It also coinci

A Conservative councillor has defected to UKIP in protest over plans by New Forest District Council to scrap free parking for Blue Badge holders. Chris Lagdon resigned from the council’s ruling Tory group and has  become the sole UKIP councillor. He said: “This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The council has introduced parking charges for disabled people to make money. As a lifelong Conservative this was a hard decision, but I cannot be associated with a party

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 p

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 si

The Cabrini Report exposes a surprising series of failings in one of the fundamental services required by disabled motorists, says Chris Fry, founder and managing partner of Unity Law. His company has been involved with actions that seek to improve accessibility on public transport for some time, but he feels conclusions to be drawn from the Cabrini Report are notable because the failings appear to be structural rather than human. “Public car parks are normally maintained by large priva

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 b

Many city centre car parks are not suitable for disabled users, suggests a report from Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK), a national campaigning charity for disabled drivers, passengers and Blue Badge holders. The Cabrini Report, named after the ‘patron saint of parking’, found fault with many of the 20 car parks in seven UK cities: London, Birmingham Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle. A majority of the car parks failed to meet basic levels of accessibility for disabled

A bill that will allow councils to cancel a Blue Badge that has been reported lost or stolen looks set to become law. The proposed amendments to section 21 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 will give councils more powers to deal with Blue Badge misuse. The amendments will allow local authority plainclothes enforcement officers to carry out inspections of Blue Badges and to confiscate badges that have been cancelled or should have been returned to the issuing authority. The

Work has started on a new car park and welcome centre at Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury, in Gloucestershire. The first phase of the development also involves restoration of the Grade I listed landscape, which is currently used for visitor parking. The new car park was designed by architect Roger Worthington, senior landscape architect for the Forestry Commission (FC) England, and FC engineers. The new car park will triple the number of parking bays at Westonbirt to over 400, with an additio

VINCI Park UK held its ‘Smart Thinking Awards’ at the London Transport Museum as a way of rewarding employees for their hard work. The Parking Team of the Year Award was won by the team at Darent Valley Hospital, Kent. Contract manager Douglas Ware said: “We’re really proud to have won this award. It is testament to the hard work put in by the whole team!” VINCI Park’s head of Europe, Wilfried Thierry, who is currently acting VINCI Park UK CEO, said: ”Th

Town centre car parks fail to meet basic levels of accessibility for disabled people, and many are totally inaccessible to wheelchair users and people with mobility problems. This is the finding of a new report published by Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK), a national campaigning charity for disabled drivers, passengers and Blue Badge holders. However, some of the parking management companies covered only became aware of the report after being approached for comment by the press and have expressed

Car parks are important structures and should be designed with thoughtfulness and creativity as well as an eye on the overall budget. One design practice which has made car parks something of a speciality is Potter & Holmes, set up in 1987 by Mark Potter and Peter Holmes. The practice has worked on over 400 architectural projects ranging in value from £250,000 to £12m, including a number of award-winning schemes. Mark Potter has worked across a broad spectrum of project types in

The 1,600-space multi-storey car park at Basildon University Hospital was built in 2008 at a cost of £8m. This investment paid off when it was named one of the ten best hospital car parks in the UK in a survey by the consumer watchdog Which? However, the structure’s lightweight surface membrane started to fail prematurely, leading to significant cracking in the surface of its parking decks. The problem led to Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust commissio

The Enfield Parking Services team manned a stall at the , Enfield Town Show and Edmonton Carnival last month. The team provided information about the British Parking Association, Blue Badge fraud and general parking advice. The public got the chance to dress up as civil enforcement officers and issue tickets to the CCTV vehicle operated by the council’s contractor NSL, and there was a colouring competition for children. “The stall was well received by members of the public and the pa

While touring the Parkex 2012 exhibition I was interested to see how some companies are now recognising that having a parking machine that is accessible to disabled people can be a positive marketing tool. Parking equipment company Amano has really taken this to heart and even had a wheelchair prominently displayed on their stand in front of their machine at a height accessible for wheelchair users. As a double hand amputee it was still too fiddly for me to use the buttons, but the company had

Britons spend around £1.35 billion on parking, but that means the average motorist spends just £47 a year on parking, compared to £1,500 on fuel. These are some of the facts which will be discussed by at Parking World, which takes place at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Tuesday 20 November. This is the eighth time Parking Review and Landor LINKS have staged this popular conference and exhibition. The true cost of parking will be addressed in a keynote paper delivered John Bates, co-author of t

Blackpool Victoria Hospital is to provide nearly 1,000 parking extra spaces in a new multi-storey car park as well as creating a new reception building. The £16.5m project for the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is being funded by the Department of Health, which will be reimbursed from income generated through parking charges. The original plans for the hospital upgrade was costed at £20m. It included significant upgrading of the road network around the hospital and cha

Civil parking enforcement has given local authorities the ability to design traffic orders and implement enforcement regimes that reflect local needs. But Caroline Sheppard, chief adjudicator of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, said parking policies are not hard and fast rules but frameworks that can and should be departed from when there is good reason. It is also important to listen and learn from complaints, she said. “Parking appeals are, in fact, sensitive, so we always need to look at w

Salford Royal Hospital Trust has ordered eight Metric Parking pay & display parking machines for a new car park providing hospital visitor and staff parking. The 480-space Stott Lane site, which has been leased by the hospital from the city council, is used by around 1,400 vehicles a day. The car park is currently controlled by a pay-on-foot system managed by hospital staff. Visitors have been using the car park during re-development works that have seen the construction of two further car park

While touring the Parkex 2012 exhibition I was interested to see how some companies are now recognising that having a parking machine that is accessible to disabled people can be a positive marketing tool. Parking equipment company Amano has really taken this to heart and even had a wheelchair prominently displayed on their stand in front of their machine at a height accessible for wheelchair users. As a double hand amputee it was still too fiddly for me to use the buttons, but the company had c

The Welsh Government has launched a more secure Blue Badge for disabled motorists, which is free to the user, unlike in England where the new badge costs £10. The new windscreen mounted, bi-lingual badge, launched on 26 March, features additional security features, making it harder to forge. Linked to a new national database of eligible badge holders, the revamped badges are designed to make it easier for police and enforcement officers to spot forged badge users parking illegally . The

Blue Badge fraud is estimated to cost English local authorities around £46m a year, according to the 2012 edition of the Annual Fraud Indicator (AFI) published by the National Fraud Authority (NFA). In 2010’s AFI, findings from the Department for Transport (DfT) and Blue Badge Fraud Investigation (BBFI) were used to produce an estimate of lost parking revenues resulting from misuse of the Blue Badge scheme. According to BBFI, misuse of this scheme varies from 4% to 70%, depending on

One in every 200 Blue Badges issued to around 2.5 million disabled people is misused, according to the Department for Transport (DfT). Badge fraud is now costing the UK an estimated £46m a year. The Blue Badge scheme allows those users and carers to achieve a measure of social inclusion, allowing them to park close to the workplace, shops, amenities and many other places that without the scheme in some cases it would be difficult, if not impossible, to access. When Blue Badges are misused

The new look Blue Badge, which went live today, is harder to forge, claims transport minister Norman Baker. Previously, Blue Badges were made from card and handwritten but from now on disabled drivers will be able to apply for an electronically printed badge, much like a driving licence. The new badge design has security features such as a hologram, digital photo and serial number allowing parking attendants to check for genuine badges more easily through the windscreen. Blue Badge fraud is est

A survey conducted by the British Parking Association (BPA) has revealed that 73% of motorists feel that people wrongly parking in Blue Badge bays designated for disabled drivers should be clamped or towed away and that 60% recognise that private land owners have the right to enforce parking regulations on their own land. The results serve to reinforce the growing calls for certain exemptions to the Coalition government’s blanket ban on clamping and towing away on private land. The ban co

The British Parking Association (BPA) is highlighting the perils of Christmas parking for Blue Badge holders. Christmas is a period when traffic is congested and drivers are stressed, leading to the increased appeal of parking in a Blue Badge bay, where the general motorist is not entitled, says the BPA. If motorists park in these bays without a badge they are inconveniencing those drivers who need them most and are probably breaking the law. A survey, conducted by the BPA in the autumn, focuse

Parking World 2012, which took place at Lord’s Cricket Ground, London on 29 November, was a gathering of over 150 parking professionals from across the public and private sector. The event, organised by Parking Review, tackled a wide range of issues including parking’s role in the urban economy, the sharing of services, benchmarking best practice, new technologies, and the future of the car itself. The day began with Mirsad Bakalovic, head of parking at Croydon Council, providing an

District nurses and health professionals can now park on single yellow lines in Lambeth, after an agreement was struck with the council and St Thomas’ Hospital. In the new arrangement with the NHS trust nurses and health care professionals can now park on single yellow lines for up to two hours. Previously, community health staff carrying out visits in Lambeth were given a parking permit, which only allowed them to park in pay & display bays without paying a fee. Carol Smith, head of

Parking crime specialist Blue Badge Fraud Investigations (BBFI) and enforcement contractor NSL have signed a deal with Enfield council to reduce abuse of the disabled parking badge scheme in the north London borough. The deal is the first NSL and BBFI have signed with a council since the two companies agreed a partnership which means BBFI will be working exclusively with NSL in the outsourced parking sector. Paul Slowey, founder of BBFI, commented: “Every misused Blue Badge means one les

Empark, which operates some 375,000 spaces across Europe, has been operating in the UK for three years. Its biggest successes so far have been in the airport parking sector. London Stansted Airport appointed Empark as the sole parking contractor for the airport in 2008, a contract which sees it taking responsibility for 28,000 spaces across valet, short, mid and long-stay car parks. In July 2010 Empark added BAA’s Edinburgh Airport to its portfolio. This contract covers all 7,000 spaces

A ‘Charter for Hospital Parking’ published by the British Parking Association (BPA) is backed by the NHS Confederation and the Healthcare Facilities Consortium. The charter is designed to help and encourage NHS Trusts to provide parking management systems that are fair for all. The issue of parking management at hospitals is a hot topic, regularly debated, and in response to this the BPA has produced guidelines to help Trusts and car park operators deliver effective and efficient pa

The design of the new tamper-proof Blue Badge has been unveiled by Payne Security, the company which has been appointed by the Department for Transport to produce a more secure disabled parking permit. Payne was awarded the five-year Blue?Badge Improvement Services (BBIS) contract by the department alongside Northgate Public Services. The Blue Badge scheme is designed to offer a range of parking concessions for disabled people with severe mobility problems. However, Blue Badge fraud is now est

A £7.9m multi-storey car park has been opened at Lister Hospital in Stevenage, part of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. The new 667-space multi-storey gets 10% of its energy from renewable sources. The car park features a silent wind turbine and photo voltaic solar panels that together generate renewable electricity for the car park. It also features recharging points for electric vehicles and a secure area for parking bicycles. The exterior of the car park is a ‘green&r

Parking Review’s annual parking management conference and exhibition will take place at Chelsea FC on Tuesday 29 November under the banner Parking World 2011. Parking World 2011 will again provide a forum for public and private sector parking specialists working in both the on-street and off-street arenas. The event comprises a conference, parallel seminar streams, exhibition and a networking reception. The launch of Parking World marks the next step in the convention’s aim to br

Chesterfield Royal Hospital is losing about £40,000 a month after a fire destroyed the wiring controlling its car park barriers. Parts of the hospital were severely damaged by the fire in the on-site newsagents on 25 June. No-one was hurt in the blaze, which was caused by an electrical fault in a fridge in the shop. Electronic systems were destroyed in the fire, with the car park barrier system being knocked out. This has resulted in the hospital having to operate free parking. A hospital

Almost half of all motorists challenged during a Blue Badge fraud operation in Harrow town centre were found to be parking illegally, the London borough has revealed. Harrow council officers, supported by Harrow Police, seized 16 Blue Badges during a six-hour exercise at the end of July, issuing penalty charge notices (PCNs) to the drivers. The drivers were interviewed and could face prosecution. They included one motorist caught using a Blue Badge belonging to his father, who died 11 months ag

Paul Necus was inaugurated as the British Parking Association’s president for 2011/12 at an evening reception held at the House of Commons Terrace, Westminster, on 6 July. Necus, who is head of specialist services at Cambridge City Council, takes over as president from Graham Brown of Liberty Services. Necus said that a key theme of his presidency will be an emphasis on increasing accessibility. Alongside reforms of the Blue Badge permit scheme he said he also wanted to work with car par

A new 1,000-space car park was opened at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on 26 May. The Tower car park, which took 12 months to build, will be managed for the next 30 years by operator VINCI Park as part of its £9m investment in the design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) contract for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The main contractor was VINCI Construction. The car park was designed by architect 3d Reid with Waterman Structures acting as the structural engineer. The c

Q-Park works in the health care sector in both the UK and across Europe. In Britain the company currently operates three separate NHS contracts – managing 9,000 spaces at hospitals in Truro, Taunton and across the Birmingham QEMC sites. Q-Park’s head of operations (North), John Pearson, believes that the service-orientated approach the company adopts when running town centre car parks gives it a particular strength when working in the hospital sector. However, he says, managing a h

An investigation by consumer watchdog Which? has revealed the best and worst of NHS hospital parking in England. Seven-out-of-ten of the 1,000 people the magazine surveyed said that parking arrangements had made their visit to an NHS hospital more stressful. Which? said: “Although finding a parking space was the biggest cause of complaint, many people also reported problems with disabled or priority spaces, while others worried about the cost of repeat hospital visits.” The annual

NSL and Blue Badge Fraud Investigation (BBFI) have entered a partnership in a bid to tackle the widespread abuse of the disabled badge scheme. With BBFI’s support, NSL intends to offer its clients more thorough Blue Badge enforcement including full legal support.  Under the three-year agreement, BBFI will also train NSL’s civil enforcement officers in how to identify badges that are fake or which have been tampered with. Paul Slowey, founder of BBFI, commented: “Estimat

The UK’s major supermarket chains are to take tougher action in enforcing disabled parking bays at their outlets after being urged to do so by local transport minister Norman Baker. This move follows major reforms of the Blue Badge scheme to eradicate abuse announced earlier in the year. So far Aldi, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose have all said they will support the government’s enforcement drive on disabled parking bays in their private

The Local Government Ombudsman has criticised Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council over its disabled Blue Badge charging policy by neglecting its legal duties to people with disabilities when it introduced parking charges for blue badge holders. Ombudsman Anne Seex said the Hertfordshire council’s duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (DDA) were not brought to the attention of decision makers, “who had insufficient information about the likely impact on people’s disab

Blue badge fraud is not a victimless crime – disabled people depend on these badges to ensure their access to a variety of destinations is made as easy as possible. And rather than being a petty crime, the misuse of stolen or forged badges is often connected to more serious crime, including violent ones. Blue Badge Fraud Investigations (BBFI) is increasingly finding examples of people with previous convictions for crimes such as theft making use of stolen, fake and the badges of deceased.

The Protection of Freedoms Bill proposes to outlaw clamping on private land in England and Wales, as well as imposing new limitations on the use of both automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and covert surveillance by local authorities. But in seeking to win populist applause is the Freedoms Bill, ironically, going to make some forms of anti-social behaviour harder to deter and detect. These issues will be debated at the Enforcement Summit 2011, being held at Chelsea FC on 20 July. The afte

Fourteen Q-Park hospital car parks in Birmingham have been presented with Park Marks under the Safer Parking Scheme. Eleven of the sites serve the Queen Elizabeth Hospitals Birmingham (QEHB) NHS Foundation Trust. All the Park Marks are re-accreditations, except the A2 car park at Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre (QEMC), which is a new site. Q-Park has invested in 24-hour CCTV operations, illuminated signage, secure entrance and exit procedures, cleanliness, brighter lobbies, lifts, stairwells a

Patients, visitors and staff at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital, on Teesside, will see short-stay car parking charges increase, while long-stay charges will go down. A zero to two hours stay goes up from £2 to £2.30 and there is no change to the two to five hour charges. The five to eight hour charge is reduced from £6 to £5, while the eight to 24 hour charges is halved from £10 to £5. Trust director of planning Jill Moulton said: &ldqu

Parking Review has teamed up with leading legal firm Bircham Dyson Bell to create a seminar focussed on the planning, development, management and enforcement of off-street parking. Parking & Property 2011 will take place on Tuesday 7 June at 50 Broadway, London SW1. It will cover public and private sector parking in town centres, at retail destinations and transport hubs. There will be  presentations by Nigel Williams (Parking Matters), John Pearson (Q-Park), Grahame Rose (CP Plus),

Over the past few months local authorities have been eagerly waiting to see if the offences they enforce under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) will be scaled back. Whilst RIPA has been used, perhaps questionably, for investigating matters as dog fouling and school catchment area cheats, it seems that some of the legitimate uses of this provision are being overlooked in the Home Secretary’s RIPA policy shake-up. Save for some minor exceptions, the main thrust of th

Ashley Brandon, aged 28, has forged a reputation as one of Britain’s leading parking fraud investigators. She was a member of the London Borough of Wandsworth Parking Fraud Investigation Team (PFIT) team which won both the Enforcement and Overall Award trophies at the British Parking Awards 2007, and then the Lambeth PFIT team, which won the Enforcement Award in 2010. Being named Young Parking Professional of the Year 2011 thus marked her fourth accolade at the annual Parking?Review event

Croydon Parking Services is a business unit which consists of 165 people who are encouraged to suggest new ways of working and, as a result, they have implemented several new initiatives. “Our staff are distinguished professionals, highly educated in terms of the professional and academic world,” says the London Borough of Croydon’s head of parking Mirsad Bakalovic. “We are in full control of all activities on the street and end-to-end processes, ensuring synergies, co-or

The London Borough of Croydon's Parking Services team walked away with the Equita Overall Award and two other trophies at the British Parking Awards ceremony, held in London on Friday 11 March. The south London council was also named Parking Team of the Year and won the Customer Service Award in the annual competition organised by Parking Review magazine and sponsored by debt recovery specialist Equita. The judges felt that under the leadership of Mirsad Bakalovic, Croydon Parking Services ha

PW Shopfitters has teamed up with disability and access consultants Proudlock Associates to provide access auditing services and professional advice to the parking industry. PW Shopfitters and Proudlock Associates are now offering turnkey practical solutions based on the experience gained from years of working in the parking industry as well as the retail and office sectors. Peter Walsh managing director of PW Shopfitters, said: “In the first instance, simply becoming aware of the unint

A new blue badge that is harder to copy, forge and alter is to be introduced as part of far-reaching changes to the disabled parking scheme, announced last month by the Department for Transport (DfT). Transport minister Norman Baker said: “The arrangements for printing, personalising and distributing the badge will be changed to incorporate advanced security features to prevent fraud from happening in the first place and to introduce more effective monitoring of cancelled, lost and stolen

Croydon council has shelved plans to extend the operating hours of a control parking zone after receiving more than 4,000 objections and 15 petitions. The London borough wanted to increase operating hours of the central CPZ from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, to 8am to midnight, seven days a week. The council had argued that the changes were necessary because the “level of available space for residents and businesses in the area has been reduced due to public shopping habits changing, whic

Blue badge misuse cost local authorities £46m in lost parking revenues last year, according to a report by the Audit Commission’s National Fraud Authority. It states that the actual cost of misuse could be “much higher” if offenders are “medium” or “regular” users of the scheme. Data for the study was provided by the Department for Transport and Blue Badge Fraud Investigation Ltd (BBFI). Misuse of the scheme varies from 4% to 70% depending on the

A new multi-storey car park has been completed at the Hywel DDA NHS Trust’s Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth, Wales. The 227-space structure has been built at a cost of around £2.6m. It frees up surface parking areas for redevelopment. Main contractor Laing O’Rourke used its in-house specialist contractor, Expanded Structures, to build the car park. Consultant Aecom was appointed as structural engineers for the project. Radflex Contract Services supplied and installed 40 lin

The neighbouring London boroughs of Croydon and Lambeth are to share resources in a bid to catch disabled badge fraudsters. Croydon has enlisted the support of Lambeth’s fraud investigation officer, who will prepare evidence packs, act as a professional witness in court and give guidance and training to CEOs (PR Oct 2010). During this year the officer will spend a total of four months working at Croydon, for periods of two weeks at a time. Last month investigations in Croydon resulted i

Councils in the UK should urgently review their parking policies for disabled motorists after representations to a UK local authority, says disabled motorists’ campaigning charity Mobilise. Norwich City Council has changed its disabled parking policy in line with current legislation as detailed in the Equality Act 2010. The council is to introduce reduced rates for disabled drivers, with each hour paid for entitling the blue badge holder to an additional hour free. Director of poli

Blue badge abuse is a problem across the country. It has been estimated by the Department for Transport that perhaps 10% of the 2.45 million blue badges on issue in the UK are misused. The blue badge scheme provides a range of parking concessions for people with severe mobility problems who have difficulty using public transport. This means having access to a stolen, borrowed or fake blue badge is a means of avoiding payment for on-street paid parking and residents and business parking bays. A

A new multi-storey car park is to be built at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust’s Lister Hospital site in Stevenage. VINCI Park has been awarded a 30-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to design, build, finance and operate (DBFO)?the car park. VINCI Park is to make a £7.9m investment build the 667-space multi-storey car park, which will improve parking and access for patients and visitors, and will include an entrance and outside landscaped plaza. A number of new initiati

Motorist’s champion Neil Herron amused delegates at the Parking Management 2010 conference with this photo of a parking bay which seems to have been created for the follicly challenged. The misspelt disabled parking bay was laid in the London Borough of Islington. Not being the most hirsute bunch, the Parking Review editorial team are actually quite keen on the idea of bays for bald gentlemen.  Amusing captions are welcome. Send your suggestions to us by email and we will send you

The MP for Worthing West, Peter Bottomley, took to the streets to see for himself how  parking enforcement is carried out in some of Worthing’s town centre. Mandy Ainsworth, parking services manager at Worthing, explained to Bottomley about the parking and traffic challenges in the town. Ainsworth said: “I know how busy our town’s MPs are so I was really pleased Peter could spare us a few hours to see how it all works.  The processes are complicated and we know how d

A new park & ride service is being offered to enable visitors to avoid increased parking charges at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. Canterbury City Council is working with the East Kent University Hospitals NHS Trust to provide the service. This follows the decision to increase the cost of on-site parking and staff permits at the 289-space hospital site. Parking charges at the hospital have gone up from £6?to  £8 a day. The new weekday bus service uses spare capacity a

A new staff car park has been built at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. The four-storey building was built by main contractor Kier Regional by Composite, a design & build company specialising in precast concrete structures. Using frames and components manufactured off-site and delivered to the site in sequence, it took 17 weeks to erect the structural frame and through rescheduling of trades and supply chain management. The project was completed three weeks ahead of schedule even though a&

A 778-space visitor car park has been completed at Morriston Hospital in Swansea. The main contractor on the project was BAM Construction. The tiered car park has three suspended levels, and was built into the natural slope of the land to keep its height and visual impact to a minimum. This design permitted suspended and ground bearing parking at all three levels. Its impact was further softened by the addition of large planters on the top deck and a random trellis and timber panelled elevatio

Lambeth and Croydon are to share the use of a parking fraud officer to investigate blue badge abuse. A member of Lambeth’s parking fraud investigation team will start alternating between the two neighbouring London boroughs   from November. Raj Mistry, Lambeth’s parking manager, said: “We won the Croydon contract after taking part in a natural tendering process.” Mistry hopes that two other London boroughs will join the scheme. The Lambeth officer will invest

SCC has started construction work on a new multi-storey car park for BAA at Gatwick Airport. The pre-cast concrete structure is scheduled to be completed in Spring 2011 after a 40 week construction programme. The £10.5m structure will provide short-stay parking for approximately 1,200 cars at about airport’s North Terminal. The car park will be linked to the terminal via an existing pedestrian link.The car park was designed by Chapman Taylor, with SCC as main contractor and Hill?Can

Q-Park is a parking management company operating throughout Europe. Over the past decade its distinctive red, black and aluminium house style has become a feature of town centre and health sector car parks throughout the UK. Arriving at most Q-Park locations, logos make you aware of a number of additional services including free umbrella loan, baby buggies, jump starts for flat batteries and even shoe-shine machines. “Q-Park truly appreciates the importance of building car parks that are

This is the time of year that English local authority parking teams start working on their annual reports, as required under the Traffic Management Act 2004 (TMA). What’s different this year? This is only the second year that reports have been published under the TMA’s operational guidance. The release of the first wave of annual report was marked by a competition run by PATROL (Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London). In May Brighton &?Hove City?Council was voted the un

As the development director of a leading parking management company I obviously welcome the government’s decision not to ban NHS hospitals charging for parking in England. Any attempt to insist that parking at hospitals be free would have presented major traffic management problems, caused customer service problems and severely impacted on NHS clinical budgets. CP Plus worked closely with the British Parking Association (BPA) to produce and publicise the Hospital Parking Charter, which ha

Proposals to scrap parking charges at hospitals in England have been dropped by the coalition government. The decision has been condemned by Labour and patients’ organisations and health charities. In 2009 the Labour government’s then health secretary, Andy Burnham, promised to scrap such fees, which raise about £110m a year. But coalition health minister Simon Burns said: “For a long time we have been unconvinced that the proposed parking proposal was both properly f

Staff parking at Wales NHS Trust Singleton Hospital, Swansea is now controlled using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). Previously, the hospital used a swipe card system to allow staff free parking. However, the system was subject to abuse, with people lending their swipe card to friends to give them access to free parking or parking there on a day off to go shopping. The expense and difficulty of locating and enforcing fines on target vehicles was causing major problems for the hospit

New British Parking Association (BPA) president Graham Brown launched a Master Plan for Parking at a reception held at the House of Commons on 23 July. The event was attended by transport minister Norman Baker. The Master Plan sets out the association’s priorities for what the government must do to achieve success in the parking arena. Issues covered include the regulation of the private parking sector, charging for hospital parking, the blue badge reform strategy, and establishing a regu

Northampton General Hospital has abandoned a system designed to prevent the passing on of pay & display tickets. Metric Parking, a manufacturer of parking machines, had supplied the busy hospital with 11 Aura pay & display units with numeric keypads and note readers The process for customers would be to enter the numbers from their vehicle registration prior to purchasing a ticket. This method is used to prevent drivers from passing on tickets with residual time to other users of the ca

Design and build contractor, Composite, has been awarded the contract to build a new precast concrete, multi-storey visitor car park at York Hospital, for the York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Composite will be working in partnership with main contractor Kier Northern. Work on the frame is planned to start on site in August, with completion due in November. The new car park, which will provide 465 parking spaces, will improve visitor parking and open up a site for potential future developme

West Suffolk hospital was named as one of the best NHS hospital car parks in England by Which? magazine. The hospital’s car parks have been managed by VINCI Park since 2006. Phillip Herring, VINCI’s commercial manager, says the accolade reflects provision of a large number of priority spaces, comprehensive variety of payment methods and excellent patient communication. “We understand that the hospital experience can be stressful for people and strive to maintain a calm and man

A ‘Charter for Hospital Parking’ was published by the British Parking Association (BPA), backed by the NHS Confederation and the Healthcare Facilities Consortium in March. The charter is designed to help and encourage NHS Trusts to provide parking management systems that are fair for all. The issue of parking management at hospitals is a hot topic, regularly debated, and in response to this the BPA has produced guidelines to help Trusts and car park operators deliver effective and ef

The Royal United Hospital Bath has been named the best NHS hospital car park in England by Which? Using information from 126 Freedom Of Information requests, the consumer campaigner examined NHS hospital car parking in England. “Royal United Hospital’s large number of priority spaces, comprehensive variety of payment methods and excellent patient communication helped it claim the top-spot,” said Which? In March 2010 Freedom Of Information requests were sent to 172 general ac

In the June edition of Parking Review I was dismayed to read the story “Herron loses High Court challenge”. My dismay is because the argument I put before the court was not — as reported — that controlled parking zones were too large. The heart of the case was the fact that the parking adjudicator had erred in law when delivering a decision where the validity of Sunderland's CPZ was challenged. Indeed, recently produced operational guidance by the Department for Transpor

Work begins this month on a £9m multi-storey car at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in Gloucester. Car park operator VINCI Park is designing and building the 1,000-space car park (PR Feb). The car park is one of two being built by VINCI?park for the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The Gloucestershire Royal?Hospital car park will feature a façade which makes use of vertical wooden elements. VINCI Park took over the management of the existing car parks at both hos

Pavement parking should be made illegal throughout the UK, pedestrian lobby organisation Living Streets has recommended. All local authorities should decriminalise parking enforcement, said the charity in a new policy document, Parking and the Pedestrian. Where police remain responsible for enforcement they should take the issue of pavement parking more seriously. The body, which was previously the Pedestrians Association, has also called on the government to lead a national “pavement e

A Norwich school that turns its playground into parking on Saturdays to raise valuable funds won an award at the annual British Parking Awards. The Parking in the Community Award was presented to Bignold School, which uses the parking fees it collects to improve its facilities and has also helped a school in Africa. On Sundays the school allows local churchgoers to use the facility for free. The parking expertise is provided by RCP Parking, a national operator whose head offices are in Norwich.

A Charter for Hospital Parking aimed at NHS Trusts and car park operators has been published by the British Parking Association (BPA). In the introduction the BPA states: “We aim to strike the right balance between being fair to patients and others, including staff, and making sure that facilities are managed effectively for the good of everyone. “Providing, managing and paying for hospital car parking needs to be seen in the context of delivering a better and fairer service to us

Besides car parks, the other major form of public site that many parking operators run are ‘parking shops’ at which drivers can buy permits, pay penalty notices and get information about local services. With an increase in the number of permit schemes and on-street enforcement it is more important than ever that the parking industry presents a professional image by providing retail premises that meet with public expectations. This reflects the massive improvements that have been achi

VINCI Park is to invest £9m in designing, building and managing a new car park for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust under the private finance initiative (PFI). The 1,000-space multi-storey car park will be located at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, with a further 400- space multi-storey car park set to be built at Cheltenham General Hospital planned subject to planning permission. The PFI partnership was completed on 29 December 2009, with VINCI Park taking over the managem

Terry Wogan, Tom Baker and Ozzy Osbourne will all be presenting the British Parking Awards 2010, yet only one person will be in the spotlight. Leading impressionist Jon Culshaw will host the gala lunch which takes place on 12 March at the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane in London’s Mayfair. The awards, organised by Parking Review, have showcased and recognised excellence in the UK parking sector for the past nine years. The awards are sponsored by civil enforcement agent Equita and su

Hackney council has successfully prosecuted three drivers for blue badge fraud, the first to be taken to court since it set up its anti-fraud team. The London borough set up the team last July, and said that a series of prosecutions against blue badge cheats were now being prepared. On 20 January the three drivers pleaded guilty to charges of misusing blue badges at Thames Magistrates Court in Bow. Elaine Folivi pleaded guilty to three charges of misuse of a blue badge and received a condit

The blue badge scheme in Wales is to be extended to new groups of disabled people and children under three with specific medical conditions. It will also issue temporary badges to people who have suffered strokes or major traumas or had joint replacements. The Welsh Assembly said it would work with local authorities to streamline the application and administration process, and improve systems to tackle abuse of the scheme. Minister for the economy and transport, Ieuan Wyn Jones, said: “T

www.britishparkingawards.co.uk The official deadline for entries to the British Parking Awards has been extended to Wednesday 23 December. The awards, launched by Parking Review magazine in 2002, are supported by the British Parking Association (BPA). Entry to the competition is free and the deadline is 23 December. The winning entries will be revealed at a gala lunch to beheld at the Intercontinental Hotel on Park Lane, London, on Friday 12 March. This year’s categories are:

Paul Slowey considers the government review of RIPA powers, which can be used to catch those committing badge fraud The use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) by local authorities in cases such as blue badge abuse is currently in the headlines. On 4?November the Home Office announced new secondary legislation and related codes of practice.  At Blue Badge Fraud Investigations (BBFI) we follow the Department for Transport (DfT) guidance in this area in relation t

Staff at hospitals in Bournemouth now have their own parking facilities, after the completion of a multi-storey car park. In Bournemouth, work started on the three-deck car park for the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Trust in March 2009. Through use of off-site manufactured frames and components, Composite took just 22 weeks to complete the project. Kier Regional was the main contractor. The precast concrete, clear-span frame solution was designed to provide an unrestricted

The concept of creating parking decks which can be erected when needed and taken down when not is growing in popularity. Demountable car parks enable additional car parking to be provided on a temporary basis to meet seasonal demand, such as over the Christmas trading period, or at locations where a car park may be needed for some time but ultimately redeveloped, as is common at hospitals and airports. TopDeck is a modular steel parking deck that can either stand over existing parking or over

It’s vitally important to ensure, when upgrading and refurbishing any car park, that you do so to the highest possible standard, using the latest materials and technology. A bright, clean, well maintained car park has a positive impact on users, instantly making them feel welcome, safe and secure; a facility that is neglected and dingy will do the opposite. It would be a mistake to dismiss this kind of improvement as merely cosmetic. Making a car park spick and span and keeping it that wa

The ongoing re-build of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham has just completed its third multi-storey car park in as many years. The latest phase to the Balfour Beatty joint venture is a car park constructed by Bourne Parking of Poole, Dorset. Like the two previous car parks, the waterproofing used was mastic asphalt. On this project, Guaranteed Asphalt of London supplied and installed 4,500m2 of polymer asphalt at 10mm thickness, plus 4,500m2 of their Garapave asphalt at 25mm thicknes

Entries are now being sought for the British Parking Awards three main infrastructure and design categories — Best New Car Park, Best Refurbishment and the APCOA Living Streets Awards. The Best New Car Park category is open to multi-storey, underground and surface sites, which became operational since July 2008. The current holder of the Best New Car Park title is the Bicester Shopping?Village car park, designed by Lyons+Sleeman+Hoare Architects. A specific Best Surface Car?Park trophy w

Parking Review is celebrating its 20 birthday next month. The parking sector’s leading news magazine was launched in 1989 and has established itself as a source of independent and expert news, intelligence, comment and analysis. The December edition of Parking Review will mark two decades of being at the heart of debate in the sector. Where were you 20 years ago? The Parking Review team would be delighted to find out what its readers were doing in 1989. Please send us your experiences, t

NHS trusts and car park operators must take urgent action to challenge government proposals to scrap tariffs for in-patients in England. This was at the central tenet of a presentation by Joe Farrington-Douglas, the NHS Confederation’s senior policy manager, at the British Parking Association’s autumn seminar in Birmingham last month. “There is a latent threat to the parking industry of legislative chaos,” he said. “If trusts have to cut charges, will this stop hos

A member of the Scottish Parliament has failed in his attempt to scrap car park charges at a private finance initiative (PFI) hospital in Dundee. Paul Martin, MSP for Glasgow was unable to gain enough parliamentary support for his proposed bill to prevent the NHS Tayside health board from charging drivers at the Ninewells hospital. Martin decided to act after the Scottish government abolished parking charges at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, Perth Royal Infirmary an

Nurses and hospital staff could face higher parking charges if the government plans to abolish fees in England for in-patients and their visitors are implemented, health unions have warned. Health Secretary Andy Burnham has proposed that car park charges should be phased out over the next three years (PR Oct). The health workers union Unite and the Royal College of Nursing welcomed the scrapping of such fees for vulnerable in-patients, but voiced concerns that NHS trusts would increase staff pa

The issue of whether or not parking at hospitals should be free or not has become a hot debate in recent months. Scottish and Welsh NHS hospitals are already obliged to offer parking for free, and find some other means of controlling the use of scarce parking spaces. In?England there is growing pressure in parts of the media, from trade unions and motoring bodies to also end the charging for parking. The case made against  parking fees at hospitals are often on the grounds that it is &ldq

A seven-point action plan for the future improvement of parking enforcement was agreed by a gathering of key players from the parking management, government and the motoring worlds. In a bid to bring organisations together to the benefit of motorists, the UK’s first dedicated Parking Summit was organised by the British Parking Association (BPA) in London on 21 October. It was attended by over 30 organisations representing central and local government, parking adjudication services motori

VINCI Park UK been preseneted with the European Parking Award for Innovative Project development for its car park at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee. To enhance access to the hospital for visitors with mobility issues there is a fleet of 10 mobility scooters and 10 wheelchairs. The site has a purpose-built mobility office and a full-time customer service representative. The site totals 17 car parks encompassing 2,500 spaces and provides free compassionate parking for the long-term sick and their rel

Parking payment machines are being wrongly described as being compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), the charity Mobilise has warned. Helen Smith, the charity’s director of policy and campaigns, said: “Norwich like many other councils, insists that their newly installed machines are ‘DDA compliant’ but all they can truthfully say is the machines complies with the standards set out in building regulations, which are referred to by the DDA.” There c

More than half of cancer patients do not get free or discounted parking when they visit hospital despite government guidelines, according to research by Macmillan Cancer Support. Under Department of Health recommendations, NHS trusts in England should offer some kind of concession for people who require repeat visits to hospital for treatment. However, well over half (59%) of cancer patients are still not getting free or discounted parking, the survey says. The report highlights that even when

Parking and public transport information for disabled football fans visiting stadiums has been added to the government information website 211 The site’s blue badge map now features accessibility details for more than 160 football stadiums and provides more information on parking across the UK. The improved site has been welcomed by former England footballer Danny Wallace, who is an ambassador for the National Association for Disabled Supporters (NADS). Wallace, who has multiple scleros

Nearly 60% of drivers give pay-by-phone parking facilities the thumbs-down, a survey by the AA suggests. Inflexibility, mistrust and confusion are the key concerns for drivers, says the motoring body. The removal of the cash option, as is happening in Westminster, is deeply unpopular. More than two-thirds of AA members (67%) say that pay-by-phone parking should be accompanied by payment machines. “Penalising users who have not registered, both local residents and visitors, is not only un

Hospital parking charges for in-patients in England will be phased out  if Labour wins the next general election, health secretary Andy Burnham has announced. Patients would get a permit to cover the length of their stay, which visitors could use for free, Burnham told the Labour Party conference in Brighton last month. He said the last thing people visiting hospital wanted to worry about was keeping their car parking ticket up to date. He told delegates: “For families of the sickes

America’s best car parks have been named at the International Parking Institute's 27th annual awards. The category for car parks with fewer than 800 spaces was won by a car park built as part of a new supermarket in South Tampa, Florida. The precast concrete structure for Publix Supermarkets has retail on the ground floor and two levels of parking with 200 spaces. As the car park is a historic part of the town, the external design by architect LEAP?Associates mixes iron canopies, brick,

Some hospitals are generating more than £1m a year in parking profits, an investigation by Which? has revealed. The Consumer Association’s magazine used the Freedom of Information Act to find out the profit margins from car park fees at 23 English trusts over the past three years. The magazine asked trusts how much they spent on running parking facilities, what they charged for a four-hour stay and how much revenue they generated from their visitor, staff and patient car parks. The

Pay-on-foot (PoF) is a technology which enabled parking operators to dispense with manned exit kiosks by centralising control of barriers and pay terminals. Contemporary PoF technology allows a range of cashless payment options, including credit and debit cards, contactless payments and pre-payments recognised by automatic number plate recognition. PoF systems were, for many years, mainly found at ‘high end’ locations such as airports, but as the technology becomes more affordable a

The Safer Parking Scheme has has now issued over 4,000 Park Marks. The Park?Mark ‘tick’ logo is granted to parking facilities that have achieved the requirements of a risk assessment conducted by the police. These require the parking operator to put in place measures that help to deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, thereby doing everything they can to prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime.  The scheme was devised by the Association of Chief Police Officers

Wembley Stadium has been accused of pricing disabled people out of attending football matches by more than doubling the cost of parking. Wembley London Ltd — through its car park operator City and Suburban Parking — has increased the cost of short stay in its car park off Engineers Way from £12 to £26.50. One disabled person Marie Witchell, who suffers from the neurological condition ataxia, and who cannot use public transport, said she depends on her car to watch footb

Stephen Simmonett, car parks operations manager at Cambridge City Council, died on 30 June after a short illness. Simmonett, 54, had worked for the council for almost eight years after a career including the Artillery Corp in Germany and management roles at courier DHL, Cambridge. He leaves a wife, Pam, daughter, Kirsty and sons, Dan and Ben. Initially joining the parking team in administration, he then rose to become the operations manager. In this role he was heavily involved in projects

New British Parking Association chief executive Patrick Troy tells Mark Moran how he plans to join up the world of parking Patrick Troy, the new chief executive of the British Parking Association (BPA), believes the sector needs to become more adept at communicating with the public, spreading awareness of the massive improvements in quality and professionalism. Now several months into his new role, Troy feels one of his major tasks is to help the sector listen and act upon comments, and comp

Local authorities could be breaking the law by refusing to issue eligible disabled people with blue badges, the government has warned. The rules applying to the issue of blue badge permits has been tightened due to widespread abuse of the scheme. Now it is local authorities that decide who qualifies for a blue badge and not GPs. Under the new rules, blue badge applicants have to receive higher rate mobility allowance or show they have severe difficulties in walking. However, some councils have

South Wales Police have issued a public apology after police officers wrongly parked in a parent and child bay at a Tesco store in Cardiff. They were photographed by a shopper who had planned to use the bay because he was with his girlfriend and his 18-month-old son. One image shows one of the police officers flicking through a Tesco Direct catalogue in the store. Inspector Marc Lewis of South Wales Police said: “On the morning of Friday 12 June two officers attended Tesco in St Mellons

Abuse of disabled and parent & child bays at ASDA stores has fallen since the start of a concerted crackdown, writes Deniz Huseyin In recent years supermarket chains have taken tentative steps to combat the misuse of disabled bays through leafleting, signage, tannoy announcements and warning notices. But ASDA found that none of these measures were having much effect on compliance levels. It was receiving more complaints about bay abuse than any other car parking issue. So, the retai

A South Wales NHS Trust is building two multi-storey car parks as part of wider redevelopments. The sites are the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend and the Morriston Hospital, Swansea, both of which are run by the ABM University NHS Trust, the largest in Wales. The projects are being undertaken for main contractor BAM Construction by precast concrete specialist Composite. The car park being built for staff working at the Princess of Wales Hospital is a two-storey structure. Work on car pa

Helen Smith is director of policy and campaigns at Mobilise, a pressure group representing disabled drivers, passengers and blue badge holders Last Saturday I went to my local supermarket for my weekly shop. As always it was no easy task finding a disabled parking space — out of 20 disabled bays there was only one available. As I pushed myself around the store in my wheelchair I expected to see some fellow disabled people, but there wasn’t another wheelchair, a crutch or a stick i

The recession provides many opportunities as well as challenges, says RCP Parking’s Shapoor Naghshineh As the credit crunch continues to squeeze the UK economy, RCP Parking is finding that more and more property companies are turning to parking as a means of extracting value from dormant sites. Managing director Shapoor Naghshineh says: “With thousands of sites nationally now standing empty — and costing landowners a fortune, year in, year out — car parking is a simple s

Parking operators should not forget the hard-of-hearing, says Ampetronic’s Ken Hollands Is providing assistive listening systems on car park intercoms a waste of money? If providing disabled parking spaces was described as a waste of money there would, rightly so, be an outcry. But when you consider that physically disabled people make up 1.4% of the adult population whereas those with a hearing disability account for a massive 14%, the imbalance becomes clear. True you do not have

Imposing tariffs at hospital car parks is the most effective way of managing demand and ensuring spaces are available for the most deserving patients, argues a new report from the NHS Confederation. Charging is designed to stop abuse of hospital car parks, particularly where sites are near controlled parking zones, shopping centres, universities and other facilities. In those cases it may be necessary for hospitals to charge at the same level as local car parks, said the body, which represents

A new parking specific division has been created in the wake of armed services charity Royal British Legion selling its commercial arm, Legion Group, to security group SectorGuard. The new parking division is headed by Tony Goddard in the new position of head of parking services. He will be responsible for the operational, administration and business development teams as well as back office ticket audit and notice processing departments. Within the parking division Goddard is supported by nati

Manchester United football star Christiano Ronaldo has been criticised for parking his Bentley Continental GT in a disabled parking bay. The incident occurred at a car park run by Macclesfield Borough Council. The footballer was pictured parking his vehicle in a clearly marked disabled bay. However, no action was taken and the player, who escaped a fine. His conduct was criticised by Mobilise, the national charity specialising in the mobility needs of disabled people. Mobilise’s directo

Staff from Parkeon visited Poole Hospital recently to hand over a cheque for over £2,400, the proceeds from the company’s Christmas party raffle. Jacki O’Shea, PA to Bruno Smith, Parkeon’s global HR director, contacted local suppliers to ask them to donate prizes for the draw. Thanks to their generous support, the company was able to make a contribution to the Poole Hospital Wish List, which it has supported for the past six years. Kim Coleman, fundraising manager for P

South Thames College is launching a 'Civil Enforcement Academy' to provide training and skills assessment for parking managers and supervisors, civil enforcement officers, bailiffs and back office personnel involved in parking and enforcement. The academy, which will be officially launched at Parkex, is claimed to be the first to be offered by a Further Education establishment. The college says the academy will provide and assess training in accordance with nationally recognised NVQs for park

Fast Park will be demonstrating its latest parking deck facilities (Stand P80). Examples have been installed in the UK and throughout Europe at international airports, hospitals, municipal sites, shopping centres and railways stations. The Italian company’s Chiara Cagnazzo says: “In hospital environments the Fast Park ‘turn-key’ package can offer many different benefits. The method of construction enables speed of erection and minimum disruption to an ongoing parking ope

Having scooped the Enforcement Team of the Year Award, Tewkesbury Borough Council went on to be named the Equita Overall Winner at the British Parking Awards 2009. The winners were revealed by Strictly Come Dancing star John Sergeant during a gala lunch held at The Dorchester on 6 March. The Tewkesbury team's submission was one of the most dramatic. "Prior to taking over responsibility for decriminalised enforcement, the council's new Parking Services team found itself helping with the h

Andrew Potter, chief executive of National Car Parks, gets a feel for the day-to-day realities of the car park business whenever he goes to work. Not only is his office at Croydon retail mall The Whitgift Centre adjacent to one of the 731 car parks his company operates, it sits below its high-tech National Operations Centre (NOC), a room decked out with TV monitors relaying views from the majority of those locations. Potter has been in charge of the UK’s largest off-street parking operato

An independent online rating scheme will enable drivers to check out the services offered by car parks. Ratings and reviews will be posted on the website along with car park details and locations. The company behind the scheme, Star Park, says that it hopes the star system will complement the Park?Mark awarded by the Safer Parking Scheme, which was created by the Association of Chief Police Officers and run by the British Parking Association (BPA). Star Park is offering to review public car pa

Top political correspondent and, following Strictly Come Dancing, national treasure John Sergeant will be the host of this year’s British Parking Awards ceremony. The presentation of the winners’ trophies will take place at The Dorchester on London’s Park Lane at lunchtime on Friday 6 March. Launched by Parking Review in 2002, the awards recognise and reward excellence in the design and management of parking operations, as well as highlight the special contributions of individ

Two car parks designed to be easily taken down have been installed at Warrington Hospital in Lancashire. The demountable decks have provided 152 additional parking spaces — The larger provides 112 bays, the smaller 40. The 800-tonne galvanised steel structures were supplied and erected by Oldham-based Another Level. Delivery and assembly took place over a weekend to allow existing parking to remain operational. Another Level’s managing director Frank Rothwell said: “Our assem

As the residents’ advocate my role is to recommend improvements to Islington’s policies, and in relation to parking services, it is also to help educate the residents about parking regulations and restrictions, with the aim of preventing them from receiving penalty charge notices. I liaise with groups and individuals, and question what Islington Parking Services do. I put myself in our service users’ shoes, think of customer care from the perspective of a resident and consider

Number plate recognition technology is being used to stop commuters from using hospital car parks in central Glasgow. This follows the scrapping of parking tariffs at most Scottish hospitals on 31 December. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has introduced automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to enforce a four-hour maximum time limit at five hospital sites. The supplier is car park operator CP Plus, which is also managing the system for the trust. It says that ANPR will be used to co

The Transport Act 2000 and the Traffic Management Act 2004 extended the remit of local authority civil enforcement services to include such elements as bus lane enforcement. This threw up a number of administrative and data management issues for the likes of Manchester City Council, which already carried out civil parking enforcement. Manchester City Council’s enforcement department is responsible for on-street parking issues across the city, particularly parking and bus lane enforcement.

Disabled blue badge holders can now use a sat-nav system tailored exclusively for such drivers, or those caring for the disabled, such as their families or carers. BBNav is the product of a partnership between Navevo, a GPS software developer and PIE (Public Information Exchange), a UK publisher of disabled parking guides. It is claimed to be the first dedicated blue badge sat-nav system in the UK. The system offers disabled parking information on 150 major cities and towns across the UK inclu

Basildon & Thurrock University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has completed a new £8.6m three-storey car park at Basildon University Hospital, allowing it to increase capacity significantly. Osborne, working in partnership with Hill Cannon, was the design and build contractor for the 1,600-space site. The new car park has improved the way that the hospital works, providing it with much needed car parking spaces and enhanced security for visitors and staff. It has been built on the s

The mixed-use Gunwharf Quays retail and leisure centre on the waterfront of Portsmouth Harbour has been presented the European Standard Parking Award by the European Parking Association at its first attempt. Peter Emery, centre manager at Gunwharf Quays, said: “We were judged on a range of criteria including safety standards, customer friendliness, ease of entry and exit for cars as well as facilities for people with disabilities. We are one of only 14 UK shopping centre car parks out of

Moves by the Welsh Assembly and Scottish government to make parking free at most of their hospitals represents an “attack on the sick and a triumph of selfishness and greed”, according to Nick Lester, corporate director of services, London Councils. Speaking at the Parking Managers’ Convention, organised by Parking Review, he said scrapping charges at hospitals would result in car parks filling up, especially in town centres or where parking is scarce. “It will operate

A local authority getting tough on applications for on-street disabled parking spaces discovered that more than one in 10 requests came from people with the option of parking on drives or garages. Officers at Gwynedd Council, in North Wales, have advised that no more than two or three new spaces should be approved each year. They estimate the cost of creating disabled parking spaces at £500 each if several are created at the same time. Otherwise there is “quite an increase” in

Councils are to be given the power to immediately seize blue badges that are being misused under a £55m government shake-up of the scheme. This figure includes up to £10m to allow councils to set up a national database to ensure that forged or stolen badges from outside their area can be identified. A raft of measures were announced last week by transport minister Paul Clark, who said they marked the biggest review of the disabled badge scheme since it was created in 1971. A Dep

APT SkiData, the pay-on-foot parking systems supplier has installed hearing aid inductor loops at the new multi-storey car park serving the oncology block at St James’s Hospital in Leeds. To comply with Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) requirements, APT Skidata’s APT450 range of pay-on-foot parking machines have been fitted with the induction loops at the entry and exit points, pay terminals and 14 help points throughout the car park. The facility’s four Easy.Cash pay ma

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has reprimanded two officers for misusing specialised bays at supermarkets. Both incidents were photographed by members of the public. One officer has been rebuked for parking his police van in a disabled bay at an ASDA supermarket car park in Rochdale on the 30 March. ASDA introduced a policy of on-the-spot fines for those abusing disabled spaces across its UK stores in February. Monies raised from such fines are donated to Motability, a national disabled chari

Government plans to allow civil enforcement officers to confiscate blue badges that had been stolen, forged or fraudulently used were defended by transport minister Rosie Winterton at a Commons transport committee hearing last month. The minister dismissed the committee’s suggestion that giving CEOs the new powers could lead to legitimate badges being confiscated. She pointed out that currently A CEO?has to wait for the police to arrive if they want to remove a blue badge. “The ti

A free web resource for disabled drivers has expanded its remit to provide more information for its members. The new information pack includes advice on residents parking permits and employees parking with special reference to disability issues. The European Parking Card Directory offers information on the government’s blue badge map service launched in 2006. It covers 64 cities and large towns, due to rise to 119 by the end of April. The new remit includes information for blue badge

On 1 August 2007, the UK’s first Hospital Mobility Scheme for disabled outpatients began operating at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland. In addition to being a major teaching hospital, Ninewells also incorporates a Maggie's Centre — one of a network of specialist day-care centres for cancer victims, and numerous other specialist facilities and research establishments. VINCI Park has, since 2003, managed the hospital’s car parking concession on behalf of NHS Tayside, one

Parking at hospitals and health centres is difficult for 60% of disabled people, according to a survey by the disabled motorist charity Mobilise. Some 3% of those questioned said they had found it so hard to find a space they had given up and gone home. Meanwhile, 34% found it “quite or very easy” to find somewhere to park, the survey found. Mobilise director of policy and campaigns Helen Smith said: “Disabled people are saying that it took them so long to park that they wer

All blue badges issued from the start of April will come in laminated casing in a bid to stop them being altered and fraudulently used. The new covers will display permanent damage if they are tampered with. The Department for Transport (DfT) has introduced the new style badge as the latest step in its effort to tackle abuse of the disabled badge scheme. Last October a new hologram was added to the badge as well as a gender-specific serial number to aid parking enforcement. The blue badge s

A scheme which applies “Shopmobility” principles to hospital car parking was named the Equita Overall Winner at this year’s British Parking Awards on 7 March. Actress Meera Syal revealed that VINCI Park UK had won the coveted top prize in Parking Review’s annual competition at a gala ceremony held at The Dorchester. VINCI Park UK emerged as the runaway winner on the day, going home with four of the 14 trophies handed out. It was the Hospital Mobility Scheme at Ninewel

Residents entitled to a disabled person’s parking exemption in a London borough will receive secure holders for their blue badges to deter would-be thieves. The London Borough of Newham is to supply the card holders to those who have a dedicated disabled parking bay outside their homes in which the badge can be displayed and fastened to the vehicle’s steering wheel. Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales said: “Residents were reluctant to leave their badges displayed overnight for f

Douglas Campbell has launched his own freelance disability consultancy. Campbell, who is chairman of the Mobilise Organisation and  member of the Motorists’ Forum, offers advice on parking design, layout and management, claims under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and promoting facilities for disabled people and other  blue badge issues. www.consultdouglas.co.uk