A warning over the quality of steel connectors used in precast concrete structures such as car parks has been published by the watchdog body Structural-Safety. If the connectors, known as billets, are poorly made or maintained, Structural-Safety warns there is a risk of them failing. Structural-Safety is a body that works with the construction industry on safety matters. It was created by the Institution of Structural Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers and the Health & Safety Execut

A South African company has designed a car cleaning centre with a funky interior that is also practical. The Machine WashWorx is located in Ballito, a holiday town located in KwaZulu-Natal about 40kms north of Durban. Its service covers not just the body and interior of vehicles, but also their engine bays. The company provide car owners with a relaxing space in which to enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting for their vehicle to be washed and detailed. Cars roll through a custom cleaning area th

The Structural Concrete Alliance will be holding a practical demonstration day on 25 September in Leigh, Lancashire. The free event will offer an opportunity to witness interactive demonstrations of concrete repair, protection, strengthening and sprayed concrete techniques. Following an introductory session, delegates will be divided into groups to tour a range of demonstration stations. Each station features a different display highlighting the key preparation, skills and techniques involved

Wöhr Parking Systems, a supplier of mechanical and automatic parking solutions, has developed a set of building information models (BIMs) to enable architects and planners to insert their full details into 3D building models. Each of Wöhr’s BIM drawings comes with parameters that can display all possible configurations, is fully scalable without the need to enter any additional data and contain a vehicle profile for performing collision checks. Planners can also view the parkin

Heathrow Airport plans to construct a third runway by 2026 and complete its expansion by 2050, according to a masterplan published last month. The plan includes diverting rivers, moving roads and rerouting the M25 through a tunnel under the new runway. The masterplan is illustrated in a visualisation from architects Grimshaw showing the M25 running in a tunnel underneath the new runway. The plan proposes a staggered approach with the new runway to be built in the first phase by 2026, with the r

A new exhibition charts the changing face of Leeds city centre’s first purpose-built shopping centre. The Merrion Centre was opened Town Centre Securities (TCS) in May 1964. The mall was novel in featuring an integrated multi-storey car park, which continues to be operated by TCS under the CitiPark banner. The shopping centre was opened with a golden key on 30 May 1964 by Dr Marjorie Ziff, wife of the late Arnold Ziff, founder of Town Centre Securities (TCS). Dr Ziff returned to the mal

So often in our day-to-day practice, architects and designers create compelling visions for transforming places across the country, but find that car parks soon dominate the conversation with clients, authorities and communities. With continued and unprecedented urban growth, cities are under increasing pressure to create meaningful and purposeful environments for its citizens, whilst also providing the necessary support structures that help maintain their vibrancy. This calls for architectural

The arrival of self-parking cars will have a profound effect on the way in which car parks are designed, managed and used. These were among the messages that came out of Parking & Property 2019, which took place in London on 16 May. Around 130 people gathered in London for this year’s conference, which explored trends shaping the sector’s business plans such as connected vehicle technologies, new national regulations covering parking land and the risks posed by fires in parking s

Two sites run by Care Park in central London have received Park Marks under the Safer Parking Scheme. The sites are located in Marble Arch and Knightsbridge. The Park Mark award recognises car parks with measures in place that actively deter crime and the fear of crime in car parks. Dominic Dunne, commercial manager UK, Care Park, said: “The level of investment we have made demonstrates our ambition in the UK market. We will continue to ensure that all our car parks exceed the standards

The way in which fire spreads within multi-storey car parks needs to be better understood, says Structural-Safety, a body that works with the industry on safety matters concerned with the design, construction and use of structures. Structural-Safety is run by the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Structural Engineers and the Health & Safety Executive. It has two entities; a committee established to maintain a continuing review of building and civil engineering matters affecting

A year after the Department for Transport made a commitment to increase the provision of lorry parking places on the strategic road network, the Freight Transport Association is calling on the government to deliver on this promise after a new survey indicated that drivers believe the situation has actually worsened in the past 12 months. The FTA supports the work Highways England has undertaken over the past year to identify potential new sites for rest and service areas for commercial drivers,

The London Festival of Architecture and the City of London Corporation have revealed the winners of the design competition to create three parklets, which are miniature landscaped spaces. The parklets will be installed across the City when the festival returns to London’s streets in June. The parklets will be created by architects Fatkin, PARTI and Patrick McEvoy. Each practice will have a £6,500 budget to turn their designs into reality. A total of 91 teams of architects, designer

Parklet campaigner Brenda Puech was named Walking Champion 2019 by Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. Puech was awarded the Charles Maher Award on 29 March at Living Streets’ National Walking Summit. The award was set up in honour of Charles Maher, a campaigner and supporter of Living Streets. Puech was recognised for transforming a parking space outside her home in east London into a mini-park, or ‘parklet’. When she created the parklet, Hackney Council ask

Campaign group London Living Streets is worried that pavements across the capital are becoming cluttered with electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. The campaign has produced a checklist designed to help local authorities identify suitable off-street locations before placing charging points on footways. “In the rush to foster demand for electric vehicles, London is letting bulky EV charging points clutter its footways,” said London Living Streets. “These installations

A new car park has been opened at Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire to meet an increased demand for spaces by local commuters. The 112-space surface facility is located close to the main entrance of the station, which is managed by London Northwestern Railway. Car Park 2 has been created by parking company Saba in partnership with GHW Developments Users can purchase daily, weekly and weekend tickets. Customers can pay for parking either at pay & display machines, using the Saba Parking UK

Scunthorpe Truck Stop has received a Park Mark under the Safer Parking Scheme, which recognises car parks with measures in place that actively deter crime and the fear of crime in car parks. Dave Ellse from Scunthorpe Truck Stop said: “The Park Mark is a great asset to us, it lets drivers know we are serious about protecting them and their vehicles. To be the first truck park to receive the award in the north of England is a fantastic achievement.” A Park Mark is awarded to facilit

Car parks are gateways to destinations such as town centres, shopping malls, airports, businesses or apartment buildings. While modern car parks are often well designed, they tend to be almost invisible places. However, some car parks are genuinely interesting buildings, and a few are what could be called iconic places that may be worth a visit in their own right. For those who appreciate architectural wonders that transform the ordinary into something rather extraordinary, Airport Parking &

Insurance company Markerstudy Group has had the top deck of its office car park in Portsmouth resurfaced. Faced with a failing asphalt-wearing course on a car park deck adjacent to its premises on Kingston Crescent, the insurance firm commissioned Cemplas to carry out the resurfacing work using the Tremco MMA Rapid Cure Flexible System. Cemplas was able to repair the deck without the need to strip the old asphalt topping. This kept the duration of the work to just over two weeks, and enabled th

Encouraging customers to visit high streets is vital to ensuring the sustainability of town centres, which face competition from both out-of-town and online retailers. Tired and unattractive shops, rundown streets and uninviting car parks do little to attract people into a town centre. This was the case in the Northamptonshire town of Corby, which has seen around a fifth of its shops closing in the past five years alone. A particular area of concern was the Market Walk shopping centre, which wa

Plans for the redevelopment of Taunton station have moved a step further as Great Western Railway (GWR) and construction company John Sisk & Son finalised contracts for the multi-million pound regeneration scheme. GWR is working with Somerset West and Taunton Council and the Heart of South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to deliver the scheme. Improvements include a new multi-storey car park, ticket office and entrance as well as additional bike spaces and improved bus and taxi int

Car parks at the Broadway shopping centre in Bexleyheath, Kent, are being refurbished by USL StructureCare. The shopping centre, which is owned by NewRiver Retail, has an annual footfall of nine million people. USL StructureCare is acting as principal contractor on the £1m project. Property manager CBRE are the client’s contract administrator on the 21-week programme, which began in January and ends in June. USL StructureCare is working in both the Broadway Shopping Centre and Broa

Art and car parks are not natural bedfellows. The association between the two would not normally go beyond provision of parking as an ancillary facility at an arts venue or festival, or commissioning some public art to beautify a car park. In Wrexham, however, the arts have been transplanted into a multi-storey car park through the conversion of some of the structure to form galleries and performance space. The local authority, Wrexham County Borough Council, has handed operation of the car park

German carmaker Audi will be discussing the work it is doing developing self-parking cars at the annual Parking & Property conference. The day will also see Gatwick Airport reveal details of its upcoming trial of a parking robot that will marshal cars in one of its surface car parks.The evolution of the connected, autonomous, shared and electric cars will have a profound impact on the design and operation of car parks. A panel of architects, automotive experts and parking operators will addr

CitiPark’s new car park in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, has been awarded the Park Mark by the Safer Parking Scheme. The barrierless and ticketless car park has 140 spaces and is located adjacent to the station. Both underground and overground line access, which makes it popular with commuters travelling in and out of London. Doug Macfarlane, head of car park management at CitiPark, said: “We are delighted to receive the prestigious Park Mark for our Rickmansworth car park. We are

Britannia Parking has opened a new car park at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight on land made available by ferry operator Red Funnel. The Well Road car park is the only long-term and overnight car park in East Cowes. The 48-space site will provide parking for residents, tourists and visitors as well as for commuters and ferry passengers. Red Funnel carries 2.3m passengers and 800,000 vehicles on its ferry route between Southampton and East Cowes every year. East Cowes mayor Peter Lloyd officiall

All council owned car parks across the Braintree district of Essex have retained national awards for their safety and accessibility for the sixth consecutive year. Braintree District Council’s 16 car parks have been awarded the Safer Parking Scheme’s Park Mark award following assessments by the British Parking Association (BPA) and police trained assessors on 28 January. The assessors found that the car parks met the scheme’s criteria for CCTV, lighting, signage and cleanlines

The geometric concrete façade of the Welbeck Street multi-storey car park in central London is an icon of Brutalist architecture, which explains the widespread sorrow among the design community at its imminent demolition to make way for a hotel. However, Welbeck Street will live on, albeit at a smaller scale, thanks to Spaceplay, an experimental design studio that explores the use of architectural forms, materiality and conceptual design. The studio produces limited edition artworks ins

Gatwick Airport has signed a framework contract with Stanley Robotics to trial robots that valet park passengers’ cars. The trial will run from the second half of 2019 to early 2020. In contrast to conventional valet parking, drivers do not have to hand over keys. Passengers will simply leave their car in a ‘parking station’ close to the South Terminal entrance and the driverless robot will lift up the car and store it in a secure car park. The system will also be connected t

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

One of Hull City Council’s multi-storey car parks closed for safety inspections last month. The Pryme Street car park provides around 500 spaces in the city centre. On 12 March Hull City Council issued a statement reading: “The temporary closure is to allow for investigations and repairs to be conducted.” The council advised drivers to use its other long-stay car parks available in the city centre – George Street, Osborne Street, Francis Street and Trippett Street.

A new car park has been opened at a steam railway’s station just in time for the start of its 2019 season. The Broadway Railway Station car park officially opened on 5 March in the presence of civic dignitaries and volunteers from the Wychavon area and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR). The GWSR reopened Broadway station over Easter 2018 after almost 60 years of closure. Since then it has carried more than 144,000 passengers, an increase of over 42% compared with the p

Weston Homes and Tesco want to redevelop a store and car park in north-east London as a new mixed-use development. The 10.4 acre site at 822 High Road is located next to Goodmayes Railway Station, opposite Barley Lane Park.The development would include a new Tesco store, a primary school and up to 1,400 new homes. Weston Homes and Tesco say they are looking to create a new community that will include 35% affordable housing, assisting in meeting the London Borough of Redbridge’s increased

A regeneration project could see a TV and film studio built at a disused railway works in Kent. Developer Quinn Estates is seeking planning permission for a new studio on the now derelict 12-acre Ashford Railway Works site. The project would also feature a hotel, retail units, leisure space, restaurants and cafés, and a 400-space car park. Mark Quinn, the Chairman of Quinn Estates, said: “This project will make us the biggest regeneration specialists in Kent and I’m very p

Leeds City Council’s proposed Stourton park & ride project has been given the go-ahead after changes were made to the design of its landscaping. The park & ride site will provide for 1,200 cars on land between Hunslet Cemetery and Junction 7 of the M621. The site will be served by electric buses running into the city centre via Hunslet Road, which will be modified to create a dedicated bus lane. The planning application was agreed in principle at a panel meeting in January, but c

A major expansion of park & ride facilities at railway stations in south-east Wales is on the cards, as part of a proposed £35m “Metro Plus” package. Work on the region’s long-awaited £734m Metro project – principally electrification of local railways – has begun but will not be completed until 2024. Now the Cardiff Capital Region, a grouping of 10 local authorities, has earmarked £15m for ancillary Metro Plus projects that could be delivered

The new visitor centre at the RSPB’s Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire features a coach drop-off area whose surfacing has been selected to look as natural as possible. The £5m visitor complex in Edwinstowe provides vital information on the area’s rich wildlife and woodland as well information on the Robin Hood legend to the 350,000 people who visit the popular nature reserve each year. The project, developed with Nottinghamshire County Council, includ

HUBER Car Park Systems International has been operating throughout Europe for more than 10 years. To date, HUBER Group has completed more than 220 projects in Germany and neighbouring European countries, especially in the UK. In 2017, HUBER won the British Parking Award for Best New Car Park with the Rose Lane multi-storey car park in Norwich, England, and its Music Box multi-storey car park in Hayes was shortlisted in the 2019 awards. HUBER specialises in car park design and build. Its system

A car park in Bournemouth town centre has been shut for two months due to a power failure. The underground car park at the Bh2 leisure venue has been closed since 28 December. It is understood that water damage caused the car park smoke extraction control panel to fail. The destination’s website states: “We apologise for the inconvenience but due to a power failure, the car park at Bh2 will be closed until further notice. Thank you for your co-operation and we will let you know when

Westminster councillors have approved proposals to demolish a Brutalist car park in London’s Marylebone area to make way for a luxury hotel. The fate of the iconic Welbeck Street multi-storey was sealed when the local authority’s planning committee decided to approve the redevelopment by Shiva Hotels on 5 February. The car park will be replaced with a 10-storey luxury hotel with 205 rooms, a rooftop swimming pool with bar, and a ground-floor restaurant.A design by Eric Parry Archite

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

Once a car park was simply somewhere to leave vehicles, but now digital solutions from apps to sensors are transforming the humble parking bay into a high-tech haven. Parking is changing at a rapid rate as technology becomes more sophisticated and cheaper to implement at scale. Already, coins are out and cards are in when it comes to car park payment machines. JLL research shows that in 2017, 44% of car parks took contactless payments, up from 10% in 2014. Yet even these machines may soon become

Contemporary and 1960s car parks, school streets schemes, charity fundraisers, cycle hubs and digital payment systems make up the eclectic list winners at the British Parking Awards 2019. The British Parking Awards have been presented annually by Parking Review magazine since 2002, and the awards ceremony organised by Landor LINKS is the social highlight of the parking calendar.The ceremony was compered by the comedian Shappi Khorsandi, who revealed that in being evicted first on I’m a Cel

Structural repair materials manufacturer Sika has appointed Stuart Whitmore as infrastructure manager for the south. Whitmore will support and advise engineers and specifiers on life care service refurbishment plans for the concrete repair and structural strengthening of infrastructure projects such as bridges, car parks and wastewater treatment plants. He previously worked as Sika’s technical advisor for repair and structural strengthening products. “I am looking to expand my rol

The finalists of the British Parking Awards have been revealed. The short list was selected from a long list of around 120 submissions. The competition was launched by Parking Review magazine in 2002 to recognise and celebrate best practice, innovation and achievement in parking. The 2019 competition encompasses the design and construction of facilities, innovative technologies, community engagement, green thinking, individual achievement and team work. Mark Moran, editor of Parking Review and

An extension to a multi-storey car park in Amersham has received the Park Mark award for safety and recognised for its high standards of design. The Buckinghamshire town had been experiencing parking stress for a number of years. A survey by Chiltern District Council showed that to accommodate the rising number of users and to continue to support the vitality of the town, an additional 339 to 520 spaces would be required. The council decided to extend the Amersham multi-storey car park, which i

NCP has a target of increasing its number of sites across the UK by over 100 by the end of 2021. The past two months has so far seen NCP open new builds in Salford and Belfast. The Stanley Street car park, which opened in December, is its third car park in Salford, while the Belfast Harbour car park is third site in Belfast city centre. Between October and December 2018, the operator acquired several other sites nationwide. Six of the facilities are existing multi-storey and surface car parks

NCP is the operator of Belfast Harbour’s new 900-space car park, which opened on 21 January. The £20m multi-storey car park services Belfast Harbour’s £275m, mixed-use City Quays development, as well as providing parking for hotel, commuters and visitors to attractions such as the Odyssey Area. Graeme Johnston, Belfast Harbour property director, said: “Belfast Harbour believes that providing high quality parking facilities. City Quays counts well-known businesses s

The developer behind a new village community near Harrogate in Yorkshire has unveiled plans to reopen a historic railway station as a park & ride facility. Flaxby Park has acquired Goldsborough’s former station house and intends to re-launch the site as Flaxby Parkway Station. The parkway will form part of the wider Flaxby Park scheme, which will see new homes developed on a disused golf course. The planning application for the development includes 2,750 homes, two primary schools, a

The car parks serving the Bluewater shopping and leisure centre in Kent are being refurbished. Bluewater's Yellow, Green and Red car parks were upgraded last year, with the Thames car park set to be revamped this year. The extended programme of works is being carried out by Hilton Abbey, which is working directly for Bluewater’s management company. Bluewater SC Management project manager Keith Williams said: “Bluewater will be 20 years old this year, so there are maintenance and imp

On Saturday 27 May 2017 part of a parking building near Eindhoven Airport collapsed while it was under construction. The building, which stood beside the entrance to the airport, was one month away from final delivery. Workers had been on the level that later gave way just a few hours before the incident. Fortunately, no workers were unharmed and no passers-by were struck by debris, some of which fell outside the perimeter of the construction site. When accidents or disasters happen in the Neth

The Project Centre has appointed Andy Brookfield as the regional director and for Manchester and the North. He will oversee the consultancy’s new Manchester office. Brookfield has over 22 years’ experience in the traffic and transport planning fields, working on both private and public sector projects. His areas of expertise include development planning, the preparation of transport assessments and masterplan schemes, car park design, travel plans, highway infrastructure business c

Newcastle International Airport has revealed development plans for a £4m upgrade of car parking facilities. The plans include building a new purpose-built Premium Meet & Greet car parking facility and a new Premium Fast Track car parking area, which will include extra-wide bays and newly installed covered walkways from the car parks to the terminal. The new parking facilities are expected to be completed in time for he summer peak period. The new range of parking services are a respo

The English Cities Fund has completed the new Stanley Street multi-storey car park at its New Bailey development in Salford, Greater Manchester. The 633-space facility will be operated by NCP, which also operates the New Bailey multi-storey. The English Cities Fund is a joint venture between Muse Developments, Legal and General and Homes England. Morgan Sindall Construction & Infrastructure, the chosen contractor for this phase of the New Bailey development, built the car park. The structu

Parking Review is the leading source of independent news for the on-street and off-street parking sectors. Every month it looks at the management, enforcement, design and business of parking. Essential readingThe magazine and its online coverage is an essential read for anyone working in the parking and highways management sectors, as well as for facilities managers and property owners running car parks serving airports, shopping centres, supermarkets, hospitals and mixed-use developments. 2019

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

French parking company Indigo has sold its European subsidiaries in the UK, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia to Spain’s Saba Infraestructuras. The sale reflects Indigo’s strategy to focus on priority markets in which it holds a leading position or sees opportunity to become a major operator. Saba, a subsidiary of CriteriaCaixa group, has acquired all shares of Indigo’s companies in the UK, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The transaction became effective on 11 Decembe

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

A 1,640-space car park is to be built by Liverpool City Council to replace the King’s Dock multi-storey destroyed by fire on New Year’s Eve. The new car park will serve the Liverpool Echo Arena, which is currently coping with just surface parking and a coach waiting area.  The Monarch’s Quay car park will be built by Willmott Dixon to designs by architect Leach Rhodes Walker. The nine-storey car park has been budgeted at £26m. It is expected to be completed by

A major review of fire safety in car parks is required following the blaze that destroyed a  multi-storey car park in Liverpool almost a year ago. The fire at the King’s Dock car park was used as a case study by the British Parking Association’s North West Group, which hosted a seminar on fire prevention and safety.  The meeting, which was chaired by Roy Tunstall, head of parking services at Liverpool City Council, attracted more than 40 people, including local authoriti

The design of car parks is the subject of an exhibition in London staged by architecture and urban design studio Studio Egret West. The practice decided to make car parks the theme of the latest show at its studios in Clerkenwell because it thinks they are a neglected and misunderstood building type. Multi-Stories: Let’s Talk About Car Parks looks at how imaginative design and planning can create parking structures that are both functional and attractive.  Cecilia Lindström, ass

Jonathan Scott, NCP’s chief financial officer, has become the organisation’s chief executive. The appointment comes as current chief executive Jo Cooper steps down after almost a decade in the job. Scott has been CFO of NCP since he joined the company in 2000. Over the past 18 years he has had key roles in the company’s restructuring, stabilisation  and return to profitability. He was also part of the management team that oversaw the sale of NCP to a partnership between l

Forecasters are already predicting that temperatures this winter could drop below the seasonal averages. This, compounded by the extreme and somewhat unpredictable past winter, serves as a chilling reminder to all businesses of their responsibility to protect people from the risks of slips and falls in icy conditions.  According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), around five million days are lost each year through workplace injuries, costing the UK economy billions of pounds. Slips,

Car park structural repair specialist Cemplas has refurbished two car park at the University of Warwick. Cemplas has been operating as principal contractor on the renovations of car parks 8 and 15. Both structures are located on the university’s main Kenilworth campus, a short distance from Cemplas’s regional office in Coleshill.  The structures are broadly similar, comprising galvanised structural steel frames with decks formed by pre-cast hollowcore concrete planks with an in

The Structural Concrete Alliance and its three constituent associations are launching a new look and rolling out new websites to highlight the strong ties between the associations, which provide a co-ordinated voice for the structural concrete refurbishment and repair industry. The new branding aims to introduce a more coherent image, with new logos for the Concrete Repair Association (CRA), Corrosion Prevention Association (CPA) and Sprayed Concrete Association (SCA) providing a clear visual l

The Premier Parking Solutions car park in Stuart Road, Plymouth, has achieved the Park Mark Safer Parking Award. The award was presented to Premier Parking Solutions by Inspector Simon Hardwick, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary’s Local Policing and Partnership Unit, and Chief Inspector Rob Moony the officer in charge of Local Policing and Partnership. Premier Parking Solutions and the landowner have put in place measures that help to deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour to re

Landowners, developers, car park operators and constructors have to make investment decisions and we have to make practical decisions. They are asking what is happening right now and what does the future hold? There is currently a lot of uncertainty in the sector, but there are three main trends that I see having a profound effect on car park design. Firstly, how we use cars is changing. We’re seeing far more car-pooling going on and car ownership falling. Secondly, the car industry itself

The Cube is a building in the heart of Birmingham designed to resemble a jewellery box. One treasure hidden inside The Cube is what is claimed to the UK’s largest automated car park. Opened in 2010, this distinctive geometric structure offers retail, office, hotel and residential space. The Cube, which is managed by Edgerley Simson Howe (ESH), is located close to New Street Station, The Mailbox, Brindleyplace, the ICC and retail areas such as The Bullring and newly opened Grand Central.&n

Berry Systems has been awarded a £1m contract to refurbish the Merrywalks multi-storey car park in Stroud, Gloucestershire.  The car park refit is part of a £12m scheme by Dransfield Properties to transform the shopping centre. Berry is undertaking concrete repairs, structural support works, providing a new vehicle exit, walkway, landscaping and installing a waterproof flooring system. It will also refurbish existing lighting.  For the Merrywalks project Berry has worked

Gatic Civil Drainage has added a system designed for use in car parks to its range of drainage channels. Filcoten is a grated channel drainage system manufactured from a high performance concrete (HPC). It is also 100% recyclable and made with renewable energy. Filcoten Parkline is a new product suitable for load ratings of up to C250 and is wheelchair friendly with almost no height difference to the surrounding road.  Sales director Martin Neale said: “Parkline is ideal for replaci

The multi-storey car park serving the Main Square shopping centre in Camberley town centre has been upgraded by USL StructureCare.  The 1,000-space car park is owned and operated by Surrey Heath Borough Council.  The car park is a split-level structure. Its internal decks were re-waterproofed using the DeckProtect+ system produced by USL Group company Pitchmastic PmB.  Following surface preparation works and minor repairs to the substrate, 13,000m2 of Pichmastic’s DeckPro

The Belfry shopping centre car park in Redhill, Surrey, has just undergone a £2m facelift by USL StructureCare. While no major structural changes are being made, the work is the most significant refurbishment in 26 years and the first full refurbishment in 17 years. The refurbishment includes re-surfacing of the entire car park following the removal of the previous coatings, decoration throughout of all ceilings, walls and columns, replacement of all joints, LED lighting and new parking b

Rising from among 50-metre-high cliffs of a former quarry in Kent, the Bluewater shopping centre opened its doors in 1999. The shopping centre was a trailblazer in the world of out-of-town retail and now attracts over a million visitors annually, many of whom arrive by car and use its expansive parking areas. Bluewater Landsec has been looking at ways to make the car park’s lighting both more efficient and easier to maintain. The shopping centre hopes to cut its lighting energy use by 650

Cotswold District Council has engaged Stripe Consulting, a specialist in car park structures, to help create a proposed multi-storey car park at the Waterloo surface parking site in Cirencester. Stripe is the lead designer on the project, providing architectural, structural and civil design services, as well as drainage, mechanical and electrical design services. Stripe will also devise the cladding brief for the car park’s façade, which will be used to select a cladding designer v

The refurbishment of the Rotherham Transport Interchange’s car park is being undertaken for South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive by contractor USL StructureCare. The car park renovation project, which started in May, involves structural repairs and corrosion management works, deck coatings and other repairs.  The USL site manager Clayton Davis said: “We have now removed all of the existing deck coatings from all parking decks to expose the concrete beneath. This will

Bristol City Council has identified sites available across the city to test and deliver innovative affordable housing solutions over the next five years. Cllr Paul Smith, cabinet member for housing, made the announcement at the Bristol Housing Festival’s launch at City Hall. Smith also committed the council to investing in six rapid-build, modular homes from ZEDpods. The modular homes will to be put up on a site that would normally be seen as undeliverable in terms of conventional developm

New housing developments seem to be designed around the car, leading to streets dominated by parked cars, suggests a report by Transport for New Homes, a new organisation that aims to bring transport and planning together. The report reveals what Transport for New Homes feels are deep flaws in the planning system which leave new housing developments with inadequate walking, cycling and public transport connections to surrounding areas. With limited facilities locally, residents are for the most

CitiPark is letting customers pay for parking with plastic bottles as part of a recycling initiative at its flagship Merrion Centre site in Leeds. To claim the money off parking, customers must personally hand all bottles to the CitiPark office attendant in the CitiPark customer service suite at the entrance to the Merrion Centre car park.  The bottles must be 500ml and over to qualify for the free parking, but CitiPark will take any size plastic bottle to recycle. Each 500ml bottle donate

Car park structure refurbishment specialist Cemplas has opened a new regional office covering the Midlands and North. The new office is in Coleshill, Warwickshire. Cemplas works with clients across both the public and private sectors, delivering car park refurbishment projects primarily as a principal contractor. Cemplas business development manager Graeme Middleton said: “Creating a new business region supported by a physical office presence has been a big tick in the box for us and rece

Car parks are a vital element of shopping centres, but how does parking fit into the business of retail? Insights into the running costs, tariffs, profitability and impact of technology on retail parking is provided by property services company JLL, which has just published its latest shopping centre car park survey. The UK Shopping Centre Car Parks report was compiled jointly by JLL’s retail management and automotive teams, which collated and analysed the performance of 62 shopping centre

While environmental issues do not rank high in the overall list of motorists’ major concerns, a large number are increasingly worried about the impact of vehicles on local air quality, according to the RAC Report on Motoring 2018. Only 12% of the 1,800 drivers interviewed said the environmental impact of motoring is a top-four concern this year, although this is up from 9% in 2017. However, 44% said they are more concerned about the impact of vehicles on local air quality than they were 12

Parking in the United States has always lagged many, many years behind Europe for many reasons. One is that Americans do not like a lot of change. That is all about to change because we are living in an era of disruption. What does disruption look like from the United States’ perspective? Disruption with regard to parking and mobility has come from the outside. Indeed, it is rare that an industry gets disrupted from the inside out.  Uber and Lyft have completely disrupted the taxi in

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

Quintain has revealed details of Europe’s first multi-storey coach parking complex being built on plot SE01, located in the south-east end of the Wembley Park development. The purpose-built multi-storey coach parking complex will deliver 290 dedicated coach spaces over two levels. In addition, a five-storey 734-space car park will be provided above the coach complex. Huber Car Park Systems, the German car park design & build specialist, has been awarded a £41m contract to work t

Peckham’s multi-storey car park has been transformed over the past decade from a place to leave vehicles into one of London’s most interesting cultural centres. The imposing structure’s migration from car park to venue has been curated by Bold Tendencies, a community interest company that organises an annual arts and cultural programme and civic space open to the public. Every year it commissions a summer season of site-specific sculpture, architecture, orchestral music and op

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

Brockton Capital, owner of the Mailbox shopping, office and lifestyle destination in Birmingham, has agreed a 35-year lease with Q-Park.  Following a competitive tender process, Q-Park was appointed by Mailbox to manage the 687-space car park on a 24/7 basis. Q-Park will take over the Mailbox’s car park operations from this month. It will introduce a new parking management system as well as services such as shoeshine machines, jump starter kits and complimentary umbrella and buggy h

Stripe Consulting has appointed Harry Smith as technical manager for its life care plan services. Smith will manage Stripe’s in-house team of specialisy engineers and consultants. He previously held engineering roles at GEW (EC) and Zodiac Aeropace. Stripe developed the Reportal online system for managing inspections and long-term maintenance of car park structures.

Britannia Parking has joined forces with a children’s hospice for a new ‘drop before you shop’ initiative. The company has placed a clothing bank for the Julia’s House charity on the ground floor of its multi-storey car park in Weymouth, Dorset, to help make it easier for people to donate. Two parking spaces have been made available next to the clothing bank for motorists to drop off clothes. Town centre shoppers on foot are also invited to donate clothes. Bournemouth-b

The advent of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) has the potential to cause major and disruptive changes to cities worldwide, claims a report by German technology group Siemens.  The Cities in the Driving Seat: Connected and Autonomous Vehicles in Urban Development report stresses the need for cities to plan early and tackle the issue in a wider context of mobility transformations. The study explores the interdependencies between urban development, public transportation policies, pow

The widespread take-up of driverless cars may lead to a reduction in demand for city centre parking, but it is unclear whether they will lead to more or less traffic congestion, a leading transport academic has suggested. David Metz is an Honorary Professor at the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London (UCL). The former chief scientist at the Department for Transport has published a paper entitled Developing Policy for Urban Autonomous Vehicles: Impact on Congestion. Me

With 34,000 students and a staff of 8,000, the University of Leeds is one of the largest centres of higher education in the UK and the third largest employer in the city. Covering a square mile and just a ten minutes walk from the city centre, the university campus is located next to Leeds General Infirmary. All the university’s facilities are readily accessible from the university due to the central location of the campus, which is served by cycle routes and public transport services. On

The car park serving an inter-war apartment building in Westminster, London has been refurbished. Dorset House is a block of 185 upmarket flats built in Marylebone between 1934-5 to designs by architects TP Bennett and Son, who worked with consulting architect Joseph Emberton, who adopted the Moderne or Art Deco style. The building occupies a complete city block. Its façade features reliefs by the sculptor Eric Gill, while the ground level is given over to shops and restaurants, as well

Volvo has redesigned parent & childe parking space icons to celebrate the diversity of modern families. The new signage, being trialled at Westfield London, comprises icons featuring a range of family types. The trial marked the launch of the new Volvo V60 estate car.  Mike Johnstone, marketing strategy director of Volvo Car UK, said: “The introduction of the new V60 gives us the ideal opportunity to celebrate the modern family in all its guises. As the contemporary iteration of

Preston Bus Station, a massive structure that combines a bus terminus and multi-storey car park, has reopened after a major refurbishment. The building is an iconic piece of Brutalist architecture. The bus station and 1,000-space car park was designed by Keith Ingram and Charles Wilson of Building Design Partnership (BDP), engineered by Ove Arup and built by John Laing. Its façade is defined by the white ‘scallop shell’ balconies formed at the edge of the parking decks that ri

ITV’s iconic offices on London’s South Bank are to make way for a modern building that will accommodate more staff but feature reduced parking. The 45-year-old building comprises offices and studio space, but cannot accommodate all 2,400 people working for ITV in the capital.  The new London Television Centre will provide a new headquarters including office space and facilities for ITV Studios Daytime programmes. A new residential building is also proposed in the location of t

Shepperton Studios wants to add 1,700 parking spaces as part of a significant redevelopment project.  Shepperton Studios’ proposals include the construction of facilities such as new sound stages, offices, workshops, backlots, parking and infrastructure, as well as a new access to the expansion site from Shepperton Road (B376). Before submitting a planning application for the studio expansion to Spelthorne Borough Council, Shepperton Studios will work with the local community and co

Hammerson has put its £1.4bn plan to extend north London’s Brent Cross shopping centre on hold. Hammerson, which owns Brent Cross with Standard Life, feels the currently turbulent retail market means the expansion plans would be too risky. The project, which would have seen the mall almost double and size and receive a new multi-storey car park, had been due to start on site in the summer and complete in 2022. Hammerson chief executive David Atkins made the announcement when reveal

Q-Park is to upgrade the lighting systems across its European estate under a single contract. Around 100,000 luminaires will be replaced in 200 car parks across seven countries. The operator has awarded a contract for the supply, installation and maintenance of light emitting diode (LED) lighting to Future Energy Solutions (FES).  The turnkey solution incorporates all elements of the implementation process, from survey and design, to installation, commissioning and maintenance. The roll-ou

A parking facility created in an Italian cave has been voted the World’s Coolest Car Park in an online poll designed to celebrate creativity and design in buildings that can often perceived as dull and dreary. Quick Parking Morelli, which has been created in an underground cave in the centre of Naples, took the top spot with 39.6% of the 2,693 votes cast. The AZ Sint-Lucas in Belgium came in second place with 19.6% of the votes, while the Victoria Gate multi-storey in Leeds took third pl

The kerbside is a transition zone between the road and pavement. There is a great deal of competition for this space, with pedestrians, drivers, freight companies, public utilities and many other organisations competing for access and use. Cities are now also having to manage growing competition for kerb access due to the rise of ride-sharing services and the growth in urban goods delivery, both of which are challenging traditional ways of managing kerb space. It is becoming increasingly clear

Driverless vehicles will transform the way in which the kerbside and off-street parking are planned and managed in cities. Long-stay kerbside parking will eventually disappear from city centres, replaced by hop-on-hop-off vehicles, while car parks will be transformed into vehicle re-charging and servicing centres. These are among the predictions made by consultancy Steer Davies Gleave in a new report. There has been a lot of discussion and speculation about how connected autonomous vehicles (CA

A 300-space car park opened to the public at Market Harborough station in Leicestershire on the Midland Main Line on 18 June. The opening of the new car park has enabled the existing one to close to allow for a new track alignment. Straightening the track will increase line speed enabling quicker journeys and platform extensions to cater for longer trains with more seats. The new car park will increase in size to 500 spaces once the track work has been completed. Motorists were asked not

Ten parking structures have been short listed for the 2018 World’s Coolest Car Parks competition, which seeks to celebrate creativity and design in a building type often perceived as dull and dreary. The short list was selected by Sophie Killip, web editor at DesignCurial, and Martin Mansell, managing director of airport parking website Looking4.com.  The winner will be announced following an online vote. Sophie Killip said: “As a design-led website, we were particularly inter

Car park refurbishment specialist Cemplas has appointed Mike Wood to the role of regional manager. Wood has a background in the construction industry experience, much of which has been spent the specialist car park refurbishment sector at Makers Construction.  Tony Blencowe, Cemplas’ managing director, said: “As our business continues to grow year on year, securing the services of Mike is a big win for us. We’re delighted to have him on board.” Cemplas works acros

Cities across the globe are starting to think how they will accommodate and service fleets of autonomous electric vehicles as well as new shared mobility services that include not just cars and cycles but micro-buses. And besides thinking the highway and street-scene will be transformed, public authorities may soon have to look at what is happening in the air because, if Uber has its way, flying taxis may become a reality. Uber Technologies has been a disruptive influence on urban mobility scene

Demand for housing is far outstripping supply, leading to a severe shortage of suitable accommodation for key workers, young professionals and first-time buyers in towns and cities across the UK. Could the solution be to build homes on existing city centre car parks and hard-standing areas? This is an idea advocated by architect Bill Dunster, who has come up with a housing concept called the ZEDpod.  Dunster wants to provide homes for younger key workers that are close to their workplace a

If Hercules had faced a thirteenth labour, it surely would have been parking in a crowded town centre on a Saturday afternoon. For many, parking conjures up visions of endless searching, pricey car parks and frantic dashes to feed the pay & display machine to avoid a penalty. Those days are coming to an end. A new wave of technology is ripping through the parking industry, changing the status quo and profoundly altering the parking journey and changing consumer behaviours. What does this mea

Rapid urbanisation combined with increasing demand for goods and people to be moved in large numbers and at speed means mobility matters more than ever. Logistics companies, mobility platforms and vehicle original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are competing to lead the way, and have invested some $80bn (£60bn) globally in connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs). However, the fast pace of change and wide range of trends driving investment in AV technology means identifying some short term pri

Very powerful forces are pushing the parking sector towards a level of standardisation that would have been unimaginable when I came into the parking business, well over 30 years ago. Back then, the parking operations in each of country were very much self-contained, shaped by very different sets of laws and very different ways of doing things. But today we are starting to see that local differentiation break down across Europe and further afield. The programme for Parking & Property had a

Donald Shoup, the US academic widely regarded as the world’s leading thinker on parking issues, is the editor of a new book looking at the relationship between cars and cities. Parking and the City is a follow-up to Shoup’s 1996 book The High Cost of Free Parking, which showed how city parking policies often prohibit walkability, damage the economy, raise housing costs, and penalise people who cannot afford or choose not to own a car. Using a combination of analysis and creative th

The Ruskin Square car park in Croydon has been named London infrastructure project of the year by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) at the Royal Lancaster in London on 16 May. This modernisation of a 1960s car park project was delivered by construction company AECOM, architects Potter Church & Holmes Architects and developer Lendlease. The Ruskin Square car park building forms a major component of the Opportunity Area Planning Framework adjacent to East Croydon main railw

Plans to build a replacement for the Saltergate multi-storey car park have been approved by Chesterfield Borough Council’s planning committee. Councillors approved the plans for the car park, with 530 spaces for shoppers and commuters, at a meeting on 14 May. The car park will also serve an 89-bedroom Premier Inn hotel being built at the former Co-op building on Elder Way as part of the Northern Gateway development. The new car park will have wider bays and a higher proportion of disabl

A car park serving offices belonging to pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has undergone a major refurbishment. The refurbishment of the 570-space car park in Buckinghamshire was managed by construction company Clifford Devlin. The scope of the project was to carry out concrete repairs throughout the split-level structure, which comprises four separate parking decks directly beneath a large office building. Specialist sub-contractor Cemplas Waterproofing & Concrete Repairs was res

Carlisle City Council has seen a 70% reduction in energy consumption at car parks where it has switched to LED (light emitting diode) systems. The council decided to upgrade lighting in its public car parks after seeing the energy savings that were being delivered by converting its street lighting to LED. The council decided to retain existing lighting columns in the car parks to minimise costs. The DW Windsor Kirium Pro luminaire was selected because of its wide choice of optics.  Esther

A new multi-storey car park is to be built at the University of Brighton. The 545-space building has been designed by structural engineers Stripe Consulting. The car park’s six levels will be created using a composite deck structure and be clad in a perforated metal façade, which will also feature green wall elements.  The building has been designed with provision for electric vehicle charging.  A cycle store with shower and changing facilities will be located on the gr

London’s iconic Welbeck Street car park looks set to be demolished, but its diamond-patterned concrete façade will live on as a wallpaper design. The Brutalist Architecture collection by British company Murals Wallpaper features close-up details from five brutalist buildings: Welbeck Street; The Cathedral of Saint Sebastian, Rio de Janiero; Washington DC’s metro system; the Pinnacle Building, Leeds; and Portland House, London. The wallpapers have been produced in response to

The intu Potteries shopping centre in Stoke-on-Trent has retained its Safer Parking Scheme Park Mark award for car parks for 16 years running.  The retail and leisure destination’s multi-storey and surface car parks were assessed for quality management, appropriate lighting, effective surveillance and a clean environment. This year Park Mark status has also been awarded to the surface car park adjacent to its leisure complex, which includes seven restaurants and a 9-screen cinema.&n

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

The Lexicon in Bracknell is one of the biggest town centre regenerations in the UK. In addition to 70 new shops and restaurants, the project also encompasses improvements to the Berkshire town’s existing High Street buildings and the restoration of local landmark, The Bull public house. The Lexicon, which is being delivered by Bracknell Regeneration Partnership, is a joint venture between Legal & General Capital and Schroder UK Real Estate Fund. The shopping centre is well served by ca

Emerging technologies provide the key for improving mobility and delivering smarter, better and safer experiences for urban communities. But the real driver for change is coming from society itself. Technology is already helping to improve urban mobility but, today, we’re only scratching the surface. The potential of technology to truly transform the way we move in and around our towns and cities is absolutely huge. Two-thirds of adults now own a smartphone with mobile internet access and,

The reliability of parking terminals across the Isle of Wight is set to improve after Island Roads decided to replace its ageing meter estate with new solar-powered technology. The machines are being supplied by Parkeon, which is now part of the new Flowbird Urban Intelligence business. Island Roads is responsible for the island’s highways network and associated services. It recently opted to install 40 energy-efficient Parkeon Strada Rapide parking terminals as part of a programme that w

Work has begun on the 21,000 square metre retail park in Tower Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk. The scheme will turn a redundant brownfield site into a new gateway for the town. Site access will be remodelled and new car parking created. Demolition of the existing industrial buildings will make way for a retail terrace, coffee drive-thru and a mixed retail and restaurant unit. The development is anchored by Aldi and The Range. The project has been designed by designed by Urban Edge Architectur

New retail units and a parking deck will be created at Hempstead Valley shopping centre near Gillingham in Kent. While the new parking deck will make up for some of the lost spaces there will be a net loss of 50 spaces. Medway Council’s planning committee has approved a 24,500 square metre extension. Five large new units will be built on part of the existing car park. The shopping centre is owned by the British Airways pension scheme and features Argos, Boots, Sainsbury’s M&am

Parking for 725 cars is being provided as part of the expansion of McArthurGlen’s Ashford Designer Outlet in Kent.  When the 30,500 square metre extension opens in Autumn 2019 it will provide space for 50 new retail outlets, a food piazza, events space and children’s play area.  The £90m extension and new parking area has been designed by Chapman Taylor and is being built by McLaren Construction. This is the first extension to the Richard Rogers’ designed tent

A 900-space car park features in proposals to develop a retail, leisure and hotel scheme in Swindon, Wiltshire. Developer SevenCapital has submitted a detailed planning application for the North Star site in the town. The £270m North Star Village scheme includes two indoor ski slopes and family snow play area, a 12-screen cinema with an IMAX screen, 10-pin bowling alley, indoor trampolining centre, food and beverage units, retail units and a 13-bed hotel and gymnasium. The existing Oasis

A new multi-storey car park is set to open in the centre of Ipswich. The 546-space Crown car park has been created by Ipswich Borough Council to replace a structure demolished in 2009. The new £5.5m multi-storey park replaces the old 1,000-space Crown car park, which had to be closed and demolished after it was found to be suffering from concrete corrosion.  The site then became a surface car park until work on the replacement structure began. The new Crown car park has been d

The planned renovation of a car park in Rhyl will make it more user-friendly and help attract tourists and visitors to the North Wales coastal resort.  The £2m car park refurbishment is part of a wider regeneration of the town, which includes a council-funded £15m waterpark, restaurant and two hotels.  The car park serves the town’s Family Entertainment Zones, which includes the Children’s Village. It is expected that the improved facility will help with footf

Buying a car used to involve a trip to a dealer’s forecourt and a lot of paperwork, but online car shopping is now becoming increasingly common, with it now possible to buy both new and used cars without ever meeting or talking to a salesperson.  Carvana is a US online-only used car dealer that allows customers to shop, finance and trade-in cars through its website. Potential customers can virtually tour the interior and exterior of each car in 360 degrees on the company’s inte

Chris Wortley has joined ParkJockey, a company that seeks to maximise income for parking real estate owners. He joins as vice president for airport solutions. Wortley has long been involved in the airport and local authority parking sectors. He spent eight years at Parkinguru, a UK consulting company that provided professional services to the airport parking sector.  Other roles Wortley has held include being airport parking services product manager for SITA, head of commercial parking an

Britannia Parking has moved to new offices in Dorset to enable it to accommodate a growing team. Britannia has taken the seventh floor of the landmark County Gates House in Poole after outgrowing its premises in Bournemouth town centre. County Gates House marks the historic boundary between Bournemouth and Poole.  The company, part of the Britannia Group, has more than 25 years experience, with 545 sites and 300 staff nationwide. Its move into new headquarters allows the business to creat

New park & ride spaces are being created as part of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s £32m programme of station car park extensions. The Station Car Park Extensions programme seeks to increase car parking capacity at selected stations. Two parking projects have already been completed at Fitzwilliam station and South Elmsall stations and more are in the pipeline. A surface level car park extension costing £700,000 at Fitzwilliam rail station has supplemented the exis

British Parking Awards-winner Ruskin Square car park in Croydon has been shortlisted by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in its annual London awards. The refurbishment of the Brutalist multi-storey has been included in the Infrastructure category of the 2018 RICS Awards.  The Ruskin Square car park was refurbished for Stanhope by a team including Potter Church & Holmes Architects, USL StructureCare and JLL. The car park will be competing against projects such as th

Multi-storey car parks were traditionally neglected buildings, exposed to the elements and given piecemeal, patchwork repairs until their owners were faced with structural deterioration so grave that they needed to undertake extensive remedial works or face the prospect of demolishing their facility. Over the past two decades there has been a shift towards more proactive and engaged maintenance regimes for car parks. A key influence on this sea-change was the publication Recommendations for the

Driverless cars will have a major impact on parking facility designs in the future. In the future autonomous vehicles (AVs) will drop off their passengers, navigate to a dedicated AV parking lot and return later to pick up the passenger. Research by the University of Toronto’s Department of Civil Engineering shows how that adoption of self-driving cars could significantly reduce the amount of urban space dedicated to parking. While traditional car parks are configured for is

In the future drivers will leave their cars at the entrance to the car park and the vehicle will set off, look for a space and park autonomously, without any stress, scratches and without wasting any time. This is the vision that some carmakers are now seriously examining. Volkswagen Group is currently testing autonomous parking in a multi-storey car park near the terminal of Hamburg Airport. The trial involves a range of Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles.  The target is for the first

The Dolphin Shopping Centre multi-storey car park has been awarded the People’s Parking accreditation by its namesake, Helen Dolphin MBE. The town centre car park, which is owned and operated by the Borough of Poole Council, has recently undergone a major refurbishment. She said: “I’m really delighted that the Dolphin Shopping Centre multi-storey car park achieved my accreditation and I hope it will encourage other car parks in Poole to follow suit.” Cllr Ian Potter, ca

Parking & Property 2018 will look at how social and technological changes will shape the design and operation of car parks The annual Parking & Property event is the one day in the year when property, parking, transport, technology and construction experts get together to explore the interaction between cars, people and places. Parking & Property 2018, which takes place in London on 10 May, will focus on how property developers and parking operators are developing new business mode

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is spending £150,000 on upgrading parking at a local rugby club. The investment in Pontyclun Rugby Club comes after the South Wales local authority completed the purchase of the building from Pontyclun Community Council. The car park is located between the Windsor Arms Hotel and the railway line. The project will funded through #RCTinvest. The month-long project will see the entire car park resurfaced, footways improved and the installation of new street li

A new car park was built at the offices of Zurich International on the Isle of Man during the winter. The multi-storey car park was constructed for the insurance company by developer Dandara. It is located on the Isle of Man Business Park, close to the island’s capital Douglas. A selection of waterproofing and wearing course products from Tremco Illbruck were used by Thelwell Flooring from the Wirral to complete the top deck of the car park, which was topped out during the depths of winte

Parking system manufacturers Parkeon and Cale have unveiled Flowbird as the name of their now merged operations. The Flowbird Urban Technologies identity was unveiled at Intertraffic 2018 in Amsterdam. The companies, which announced their merger in January, believe the new name reflects their intention to strengthen their desire to be a provider of digital services. Bertrand Barthélemy, Flowbird’s chief executive, said the brand was inspired by the ease with which each bird moves

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

NCP has secured a 35-year lease on a multi-storey car park at New Bailey in Salford, Greater Manchester, adding 633 spaces to the new riverside development. This will be the second multi-storey car park that NCP will operate within New Bailey, having agreed the lease of a 620-space multi-storey car park in December 2014 with English Cities Fund (ECf). Following the completion of the first New Bailey car park in 2014, demand for parking has continued to grow, largely due to the regeneration an

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

Trials of an online shopping service that delivers straight to cars is to be run in Barcelona by Spanish car-maker SEAT in partnership with car park operator Saba. Droppit is an app that allows people to place a shopping order at a virtual supermarket and have it delivered directly to their car while it is parked in a car park. Droppit is available for both iOS and Android. The six-month Barcelona pilot will managed by Saba in car parks on Carrer Pau Casals and Carrer Lluís Companys. The

Parking system manufacturers Parkeon and Cale have finalised a merger. French company Parkeon and its Swedish rival Cale entered into exclusive negotiations in November last year and, with agreement reached, work is now underway to establish a new umbrella organisation. Danny Hassett, Parkeon’s regional parking director in the UK, will take over responsibility for the Cale business in the UK.  Hassett confirmed that both the Parkeon and Cale brands will continue as separate entities

Pictures and a video have been released showing for the aftermath of the fire at Liverpool’s Waterfront Car Park. The New Year’s Eve blaze lasted almost 12 hours and took more than 20 fire crews to bring under control. Unprecedented in its nature, the fire spread throughout the multi-storey car park, which sits within the ACC Liverpool complex, causing extensive damage that the insurance industry estimates will result in claims worth more than £20m. Liverpool City Council is

The British Parking Awards 2018 have attracted around 100 entries from across the country. The annual awards encourage both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition encompasses buildings, technology and people. The British Parking Awards spans both the on-street and off-street sides of the parking sector. This year’s entr

Nobody can avoid the absolute deluge of articles that are coming out now and media stories relating to autonomous vehicles (AVs). Typically, these are fairly polarised. Some can be characterised as predicting a real reduction in the demand for parking. There are images from various urban designers and architects showing romanticised 2050 visions of what the future might look like, of how our streetscape might start to evolve. But the debate about AVs starts to become a lot more nuanced when we&

High-resolution aerial photography is helping Darlington Borough Council produce plans of council owned land in order to promote growth and development in the North East of England authority. Primarily used by the estates and property section of the Economic Growth Group, the Bluesky aerial imagery helps locate and identify previously undeveloped land parcels, producing maps for acquisitions and disposals, right-to-buy and tenancy agreements, way leaves and easements. Used in combination wit

The Cascades shopping centre in Portsmouth city centre has upgraded its pay-on-foot system, opting to install the WPS ParkAdvance system. The six-level car park has 615 spaces, 32 of which are disabled access. The car park now has five pay stations, three entry terminals and a total of five barriers. Andrew Philip, Cascades’ centre manager, said parking technology and thinking has advanced considerably in recent years. “Parking is no longer considered a simple provision, but rather

The refurbishment of the Wolverhampton Civic Centre Car Park came second in the 2017 Structural Concrete Alliance Award for Repair and Refurbishment. The car park forms the basement of the city council’s offices. The 40-year-old reinforced concrete structure had been plagued with defects for years, including delaminating concrete decks, spalling and cracking in the soffits and damaged columns. Refurbishment contractor VolkerLaser developed an innovative repair and protection scheme for t

When Cambridge City Council decided to refurbish three of its high use multi-storey car parks it invested a lot of time in planning ways to minimise disruption to the general public, businesses and the city centre as a whole. The planning and pre-risk analysis work paid off with  the project starting on 15 May 2017. It had originally been anticipated that these works would run into late September, but adopting a due diligence approach, clear communications and effective contract management

The three multi-storey car parks serving the Festival Place shopping centre in Basingstoke, Hampshire, are being refurbished to make them more attractive to shoppers.  The refurbishment is being carried out by Makers Construction, which won a design & build contract. The car park renovation forms part of a wider refurbishment programme for the centre. The multi-storey car parks required upgrading following signs of delamination and water ingress. The deterioration was creating slip-ha

Nottingham City Council has unveiled the designs of the new Broadmarsh bus station and car park, which will provide 1,397 parking spaces, almost 250 more than in the previous car park. The city council said the development will significantly improve the approach to the city centre from Nottingham Station. The car park includes charging points on each floor for electric cars, with infrastructure in place to increase these as usage of electric cars increases. Solar panels will be installed on the

A fire at a multi-storey car park in Liverpool destroyed up to 1,400 vehicles, forcing many people to spend New Year’s Eve in a temporary shelter. The fire started at around 4.40pm in the King’s Dock car park, which is adjacent to the Liverpool Echo Arena, part of the Arena and Convention Centre (ACC) Liverpool complex.  It appears flames from a blaze in one car spread to other vehicles around it, and then to cars parked on other decks.  Over 20 fire engines attended the

A council car park in Leicester that was revealed in 2012 to an astonished world as the site where Richard III was buried in 1485 is being given Scheduled Monument status by the government. The remains of a 13th century monastic site, Greyfriars in Leicester, which was the burial place of King Richard III, has been granted protection by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.  Richard III’s skeleton was found during an archaeological ex

Europe’s car parking infrastructure is undergoing significant growth. In the past year, four of the largest operators have been put up for sale, while mergers and acquisitions activities are commanding high prices. These are core observations by credit ratings agency S&P Global Ratings in a new report on the sector’s growth potential. However, the ratings agency’s report concludes that, while the current flurry of deals seems promising, the future looks far less certain fo

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

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

Stoke-on-Trent Council has proposed hikes to tariffs at one of its biggest car parks, along with a rise in Council Tax and a dozen job losses in its bid to make an extra £10.5m in savings. In its budget for 2018-19, the authority is seeking a 4% Council Tax rise next year. The Independent-Conservative administration is also proposing to increase parking charges at leisure centres and to reduce its budget for homelessness services by £316,000. Other changes to the council’s ca

Parking system manufacturers Parkeon and Cale have entered into exclusive negotiations that could bring about their merger. Parkeon is based in France, while Cale is a Swedish company. Both companies produce parking payment terminals and management software. The enlarged group would have around 1,300 employees largely based in France, UK, Sweden and North America. It is planned that the Cale and Parkeon brands would both continue

Parking at Kemble Station in Gloucestershire has been doubled following the completion of work on a new car park officially opened by Princess Anne. The £1.4m works have provided 333 additional spaces at a new car park that was opened by the Princess Royal driving through a ribbon at a special event to mark the occasion. A plaque was also unveiled at the station. Kemble Station previously had 335 long-stay spaces plus four short-stay bays.  Ben Caswell, finance director at Great We

A government plan to build a lorry park in Kent to ease traffic congestion caused by Operation Stack has been dropped. The Department for Transport has withdrawn its application to build a £250m lorry park near the M20 at Stanford, near Hythe. The lorry park was due to built at Junction 11 near Folkestone to alleviate disruption caused by Operation Stack and lorry drivers parking near public roads. The plan to create parking for 3,600 lorries had generated opposition from Stanford Paris

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 

A new car park reception building has been opened at Bristol Airport. The building is the centrepiece of a £2.5m investment in the Silver Zone car park. The reception building has been expanded to meet expected demand next summer.  Thousands of people use the car park reception building each day. It also hosts up to 50 staff from the airport’s ground transportation team. The new two-storey structure has been designed to create a more positive first and last impression for passe

In a world where customer experience is king, airlines have been improving their aircraft, whilst airport operators have focused on terminals. Both have invested heavily in services to make the journey better, but often the start and end of a journey is forgotten – the parts that can be the most stressful, and can make or break the overall experience. That is why car parks are a vital element in the overall experience. Car parking is an important revenue earner, as the annual parking earn

The meeting point of road, river and rail, King’s Cross in North London has had seen many ups and downs over the past 150 years. Two grand rail termini were constructed in the Victorian era – the clean lines of King’s Cross station and the Gothic grandeur of St Pancras and its companion, the Midland Grand Hotel. While always a busy national rail and commuter hub, during the Post-War era the area became run-down and neglected.  However, the King’s Cross area has been

Historic England, the public body that champions and protects historic places, has published a free guide to the architecture of driving. Buildings and Infrastructure for the Motor Car, written by John Minnis and Kathryn A Morrison and edited by Paul Stamper, looks at the buildings of what some have called the ‘Motor Age’: car factories, petrol stations and car showrooms, domestic garages, car parks, motorway service stations, motels, and the roadhouses and roadside cafés. &l

An architecture practice has come up with a way of saving the iconic 1970s Welbeck Street car park in London from demolition. Designed by Michael Blampied and Partners, the Welbeck Street Car Park was originally built for department store chain Debenhams. The diamond-pattern of the concrete façade is seen as a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture. During the summer, Westminster City Council approved the demolition of the car park to make way for a 206-room hotel for Shiva which has been

When Jim Hill and John Cannon founded Hill Cannon & Partners in 1967 little did they expect that, over the next 50 years, their business would grow to be recognised as an international leader in the design and development of contemporary car parks. Transforming what were historically seen as functional buildings, from an architectural perspective, to award winning, architecturally significant buildings that shape our urban landscape today. Pioneering car park designers Jim Hill and John Ca

A failing waterproof system on a car park resulted in water working its way into the supermarket below. The car park at the Morrison’s store in Herne Bay, Kent, is located on the roof of the retail store itself. The car park is split over two levels providing approximately 80 spaces.  The existing asphalt waterproof wearing surface of the car park had become damaged and split over the years, allowing significant water ingress into the store.  Wm Morrison Supermarkets appointed

A property services company says it has identified around 10,500 car parks in the UK’s towns and cities that could be developed to accommodate over 350,000 homes, enough to house around one million people. “Over the past 15 years several crucial demographic changes have begun to take hold which are having a dramatic impact on the adequate provision of housing in the UK,” said Nick Whitten, JLL’s director of UK research. “A trend towards urban living has disproport

Donald Shoup, the renowned parking guru, has been recognised by one the USA’s leading planning academies. The California-based academic has been named Distinguished Educator by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. The award is conferred every two years to honour significant contributions to the field of planning. It recognises scholarly contributions, teaching excellence, public service and contributions that have made a significant difference to planning scholarship, educati

Over half of UK shoppers say they would never return to a retail site if they had previously had a poor parking experience there, according to car parks operator NCP. When asked why they might postpone or cancel a visit, NCP found that 55% of these “lost customers” were concerned that they would not be able to find a space in which to park.  A further 39% said a concern that either their car or they would be unsafe in the car park would prevent them from visiting, while 42% wo

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

Car park operator NCP has announced an aggressive three-year expansion plan with the aim of increasing its estate by over 100 new sites. The company is actively seeking to grow its property portfolio from the current number of 500 sites by taking on new leases, as well as operations and management contracts for existing and new car parks across a number of key areas. In addition, NCP said it may expand through the purchase of new and existing car parks and land for the construction of new, who

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

Locals on the Isle of Skye are calling for urgent action to tackle traffic and parking problems caused by a surge in tourism. Islanders have pointed out that the isle’s narrow single-track roads are crammed and choked with camper vans, tour buses and cars, with litter strewn around stopping places and visitors relieving themselves in the open. Skye is the largest island on the Inner Hebrides and has seen a marked increase in visitors driving vehicles since a road bridge was opened in 1995

Transport consultant Andrew Potter has launched a new consultancy called Parking Perspectives. It provides enquiring and strategic advice to clients on issues of parking strategy, policy and pricing.  Speaking about the company, Potter said: “Some clients are not specifically seeking a parking solution, but recognise that parking may be a key consideration or constraint to achieving their wider ambitions.  “As the High Street competes with out-of-town retailing and the int

B4 Car Park in Birmingham seeks to make parking an enjoyable experience not only by offering a clean and bright environment, but also service with a human face and a membership scheme that takes the hassle out of paying. The fact that the car park has amassed a brace of awards, including a British Parking Award, European Parking Standard Award, Disabled Parking Accreditation and a Park Mark, indicates that the teams who designed it and manage it are doing something right. The car park is the br

A new car park in London’s King’s Cross regeneration area has been shortlisted for a national lighting award. Nualight’s lighting scheme for the Handyside car park has been shortlisted in the Industrial and Transport Lighting category. The 415-space car park was built by Keir who wanted a smart lighting scheme for the car park. Working with the Parking Matters consultancy, the project team selected Nualight’s Titan for LED car park lighting.  The winners will be a

An underground car park that uses a spiral ramp approach to create structure with a minimal number columns has been named the Best New Car Park in Europe.  The Park Primo Maggio, in the Italian town of Udine was among the winners at the European Parking Awards. The 387-space car park has been designed so cars park on a gently sloping spiral as well as decks that have been configured as clearspan environments. The Best Renovation Award was also won by an underground car park project. Cont

The renovation of Wolverhampton Civic Centre’s basement parking areas has been shortlisted for an annual concrete industry awards. The car park project is one of three schemes shortlisted for the Structural Concrete Alliance 2017 Structural Concrete Alliance Award for Repair and Refurbishment.  VolkerLaser delivered a repair and protection scheme for the 40-year-old reinforced concrete Wolverhampton Civic Centre Car Park, which had been plagued with defects for years, including delam

Dundee has received £600,000 worth of government new electric vehicle (EV) chargers and other infrastructure via grants from the UK and Scottish governments. The Scottish city has established itself as a pioneer in providing facilities for EVs, having already received in the region of £1.8m in grants in recent year. The new round of funding comes from Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), Transport Scotland and Air Quality Funding. Lynne Short, convener of Dundee City Council&rsqu

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

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

The Mount Retail Park in Kingston-Upon-Hull has been awarded a Park Mark under the Safer Parking Scheme award for a seventh year running.  The retail park, which is run by AEJ Management, has 560 public parking spaces and 26 disabled spaces. Marc Dias, crime reduction officer at Humberside Police said: “The Mount is really impressive, in that the operator has put in place measures that help to deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, thereby doing everything they can to pre

The Rose Lane Car Park in Norwich has been nominated for a design award in the Civic Category by the Norwich Society. The 595-space steel-framed structure was built for Norwich City Council in 2016 by Huber Car Park Systems International in collaboration with Potter and Holmes Architects  The Rose Lane car park acts as the anchor for the redevelopment of the city’s Mountergate area. It is a 24-hour facility which, during the day, offers public parking, toilet and baby-changing facili

Three Cambridge City Council multi-storey car parks reopened at the start of August following the completion of the main elements of a programme of essential improvements. The improvement works at the Grand Arcade, Grafton East and Queen Anne Terrace car parks are part of a £1.2m investment programme. The work was finished ahead of schedule as the expected completion date was in late September. The main contractor on the project was Makers Construction.  The bulk of the works took

In 1970 the Welbeck Street Car Park opened to provide parking spaces and storage for the new Debenhams flagship store on Oxford Street, London. The multi-storey car park, designed by Michael Blampied & Partners, attracted a lot of coverage from the architectural press. In 1971 Building magazine wrote: “Blampied’s design put aesthetic quality and structural ingenuity on a par with functionality creating a striking yet eminently practical building.” Less then 50 years later

A new car park has been built in the heart of The Hague, capital of the Netherlands. The Museumkwartier car park has been built between the Dutch Parliament and the US Embassy.  The car park was created by Develop Combination PTV, a collaboration between SENS Real Estate and Dura Vermeer Infra. It was built by Dura Vermeer Concrete and Hydraulic Engineering. It is managed by Interparking. Rolf Oostendorp, chief executive of Interparking Netherlands, said the Museumkwartier car park is the

Network Rail has sold the Quadrant:MK multi-storey to parking operator Indigo. The car park is located close to the Milton Keynes Central railway station and one of the main lines from London to Manchester. The six-floor car park, which has 294 spaces, is open around the clock seven days a week. The car park’s security measures include a CCTV monitored entrance that requires an entry code. The car park is monitored remotely, with customers able to contact Indigo’s customer support

A parapet at an NCP car park in Nottingham City Centre partially collapsed in the small hours of Saturday morning. No one was injured in the incident at the Nottingham City multi-storey, which occurred at around 4am on 26 August, but some cars were left dangling from the edge of the building. A section of the concrete façade fell some 50 feet into Cumberland Place below. Structural engineers have been assessing the situation and streets around the car park were sealed off by police. N

Over 80% of the people are open to the idea of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the UK’s roads, according to a report produced by transport researchers TRL and Royal Holloway, University of London. The Attitudes to AVs report shows that many people feel that self-driving cars would help deliver a wide range of environmental, social and economic benefits. “People’s overall openness to the idea of autonomous vehicles was very high, with 81% of respondents agreeing that ‘driver

German car-maker Mercedes-Benz will be piloting a driverless parking solution at the multi-storey car park serving its museum in Stuttgart, Germany. The Automated Valet Parking concept has been developed by Mercedes-Benz’s Daimler brand in partnership with engineering company Bosch. The Automated Valet Parking concept is that a driver will step out of their car and tap in ‘park’ on a smartphone app. The garage then handles the logistics of the operation by working with the car&

One of Britain’s most iconic car parks, Welbeck Street in London’s West End, is to be demolished. The structure’s distinctive geometric concrete façade is an example of the Brutalist school of architecture. Westminster City Council has approved proposals to demolish the car park, which is located just north of Oxford Street, to make way for a hotel and retail development. Designed by architects Michael Blampied and Partners, Welbeck Street Car Park was built for departm

Shopping centre parking incomes across the UK have remained static, but the cost of providing shoppers’ parking at retail destinations is increasing, and are likely to keep rising due to changes in business rates. These are the key findings in a survey conducted by professional and real estate services company JLL. Besides analysis costs and income, the annual JLL survey of shopping centre car parks also looks at how these destinations are engaging with owners of electric vehicles. The s

Two Suffolk district councils have brought forward a scheduled replacement of their parking terminal estates to ensure that local people are able to use the new £1 coin to pay for parking. Suffolk Coastal and Waveney district councils work in partnership and collaborated in the renewal of their parking terminals.  A total of 115 Parkeon Strada Rapide terminals have been installed in towns across the districts, including Lowestoft, Beccles, Bungay, Felixstowe, Framlington and Aldebur

A pair of retail parks in Telford have been presented with the Park Mark award for safety and recognised for being accessible to disabled users with the Disabled Parking Accreditation (DPA). The Telford Forge Retail Park and Wrekin Retail Park are managed by facilities management company AEJ. “The parks attract customers from neighbouring towns with glowing reviews.  It is important for us to continue to maintain these high standards for our customers,” said Jayden Walton, AEJ

Australian investment bank Macquarie is selling UK parking operator National Car Parks (NCP) to a Japanese consortium. Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II (MEIF2) is to sell its 100% interest in NCP to a consortium comprising Park24, a listed Japanese strategic buyer and Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), a government-owned financial institution.  The value of the deal has not been disclosed. MEIF2, which acquired NCP in 2007, said it is divesting itself of the parking company because

The Safer Parking Scheme is promoting the Park Mark using an advertising campaign based around camouflage body art. The advertising campaign focuses on the safer parking scheme criteria that are known to reduce crime and the fear of crime in car parks and aims to bring the scheme’s brand into people’s consciousness so that they know what to look for. 

Technological and sociological trends will transform the design and operation of parking services. The car park of the future will be a place where, besides parking, you re-charge your electric car and/or pick up online purchases. Within the next few years, car parks will become places where semi-autonomous cars drop-off their driver and passengers, park themselves and then pick them up again after their shopping trip or leisure experience. The fact that the car of the future will most probably

The Merry Hill multi-storey car park provides a total of 1,000 parking spaces for visitors to the West Midlands shopping centre. The car park was refurbished by specialist contractor USL StructureCare, with particular attention being paid to on of the internal levels, which had been closed for several years due to continual and excessive water leakage through the roof. Because the amount of natural sunlight reaching inside car parks is restricted, it was important to USL Struct

TERRAM has expanded its range of reinforcement mesh products for protecting grassed areas prone to damage from vehicular or pedestrian traffic. The company’s GrassProtecta has been used at golf courses, National Trust sites, landscape gardens and airports. The range now features three new products: GrassProtecta Lite, GrassProtecta Medium and GrassProtecta Heavy. TERRAM’s UK distribution sales manager, Martin Gilbert, said: “We have spent a significant amount of time listen

A new range of road surface and marking materials for use on roads, car parks and pedestrian crossing has been introduced by Hitex International. The Puma range of modified MMA (Methyl Methacrylate) high friction surfacing and road marking materials is designed to enable contractors to control the curing process to suit the available workforce, speeding up highway works and reducing traffic congestion. John Lloyd, managing director at Hitex Traffic Safety, said: “Puma provides a less disr

Parking technology company Parkeon has appointed Kenny Scouller to the new role of UK off-street sales manager. He joins Parkeon from CAME Parkare, where he was national sales manager and operations manager. At Parkeon Scouller will be responsible for supporting existing customers while developing new business opportunities across multiple sectors, including retail, public administration, health, higher education and transport. Many of Parkeon’s recent parking solutions incorporate ticke

Leeds’ new Temple Green Park & Ride has opened in the city’s Gateway45 Enterprise Zone. The 1,000-space P&R facility is located next to the A63, just off Junction 45 of the M1 motorway.  A 15-minute bus link to the city centre runs into the city centre every 10 to 15 minutes. Journeys between Temple Green and Boar Lane in the city centre are on low-emission buses run by First West Yorkshire. The buses, which are equipped with free Wi-Fi, run between 6am and 9pm weekdays

Real estate services company JLL has launched a new team that will focus on providing advice on car parks, car dealerships, petrol filling stations and motorway service areas to investors, property owners, operators and funders.  The new JLL Automotive team sits within the company’s wider Alternatives team and will work alongside JLL’s Upstream Sustainability services team. The team is made up of people who have a mix of agency, consultancy, construction, data, research and ope

An offer of €2.95bn (£2.57bn) made by a US investment company for Q-Park has been accepted by all the Dutch parking company’s shareholders. KKR Infrastructure has announced that 100% of the shareholders accepted its offer for all shares in the parking company, which operates car parks across ten North-West European countries: the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The €2.95bn offer price represents a multipl

Q-Park’s board has recommended the Dutch parking operator’s shareholders accept a €2.95bn offer from US private equity investor KKR. The offer came as the result of a structured sale process that was initiated last year by Q-Park’s existing shareholders. Q-Park’s shareholders consist mainly of institutional investors, including pension funds and insurance companies. Q-Park’s shareholder committee of Q-Park has entered into an

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 recently upgraded car park at the Lower Precinct shopping centre in Coventry has retained its Park Mark status. Last autumn a Triflex system was installed to waterproof the rooftop as well as the relining of existing pathways to increase visibility and safety. The renovation contributed to the centre securing a Park Mark under the Safer Parking Award for the second year running. The Park Mark was renewed following a risk assessment conducted by the police and the British Parking Association

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

Q-Park UK has signed a 35-year lease on the Piccadilly Place car park in Manchester. The car park is owned by Property Alliance Group and Ares Management.  The car park is located next to Manchester’s main train station, Piccadilly. The car park sits underneath Piccadilly Place piazza, a mixed-use scheme comprising three office buildings, an apartment block, restaurants, cafés, bars and a gym.  Q-Park has signed a deal for 302 public spaces and will also manage spaces th

Property and construction group McLaren has launched a new business focussed on building and refurbishing car parks. The new McLaren Parking business will specialise in the upgrade, maintenance and construction of car parks. The group has been working in this market in the UK and United Arab Emirates over the past 15 years. Its projects include two car parks for NCP in Bolton. Deane Road was built in 2009 while its sister site, Topp Way, was named Best New Car Park at the British Parking Awards

A pick-up and drop-off facility opened at Glasgow Airport at the end of April. The purpose-built covered area is the final stage of a wider scheme of works A pick-up and drop-off facility opened at Glasgow Airport at the end of April. The purpose-built covered area is the final stage of a wider scheme of works designed to reduce congestion and improve the flow of traffic on the airport’s road network. Amanda McMillan, managing director at Glasgow Airport, said: “In addition to addre

Three Cambridge City Council car parks are undergoing improvements throughout the summer as part of a £1.2m investment programme.  The car parks being upgraded are The Grand Arcade, Queen Anne Terrace and Grafton East. The Grand Arcade car park, which has not had any major refurbishment works since it opened in 2007, will have a number of improvements. These include the laying of completely new protective deck coatings throughout the upper car park to keep rainwater out and to prote

A well maintained and managed car park is essential to ensure that all users, both vehicles and pedestrians stay safe. A car park is often the first impression a customer will have of your business, so also needs to look good. Regular maintenance is necessary to keep a car park looking good and safe for all users, and the summer months are an ideal time to carry out any routine work. How much depends on the volume of traffic using the car park. Firstly, when you try to assign an order to all t

My fascination with concrete, industrial landscapes, and what I later came to know as ‘Brutalism’, started at an early age. It’s hardly surprising as I grew up in the North East of England in the late Seventies. At the time, British Steel and the ICI chemical plant commanded the north and eastern flanks of Middlesbrough, the town in which I was born and raised. These chemical and steel plants not only dominated the horizon beyond the town centre, they also supplied an industria

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

The travails of President Trump, the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, carnage in Syria and the politics of Brexit have all been dominating the headlines for months, so it was a surprise to see one of the world’s most influential business publications, The Economist, devoted a leader article (‘Aparkalypse now’) and a feature piece (‘Sacred spaces’) to parking’s impact on the health and vitality of cities. “Parking can seem like the most humdrum concern

From automated electric cars to supersonic trains and fare paying rocket ships, Elon Musk has bold visions when it comes to how we will travel. But The Wall Street Journal recently explored how the American technologist is having to get to grips with a far more mundane issue: how to accommodate all the growing number of employees who want to use the staff car parks at his offices and factories in California. “Parking is, like, one of my biggest nightmares. Like, where do we park everyone?

The Bon Accord & St Nicholas Shopping Centre dominates retailing in Aberdeen’s city centre, attracting an annual footfall of 13 million people a year. The pair of centres are anchored by John Lewis and Marks & Spencer and provide 460,000 sq. ft. of retail accommodation for over 75 shop units that are let to retailers including Boots, New Look, Next, River Island, Top Shop/Top Man and Hobbs.? The centres have 1,400 car parking spaces, including the Loch Street and Harriet Street mu

The waterproof coatings used on a Bedfordshire County Council multi-storey car park in the centre of Leighton Buzzard are still working almost 30 years after their application. The Stirling Lloyd Decseal waterproofing and wearing course system was installed at the West Street car park in 1989, with some replacement markings in 2003.  When inspected in October 2015, Bedfordshire’s term contractors Amey returned to carry out further maintenance. They found the system was still well bo

British Water, the UK water industry’s representative body, has published a code of practice for assessing surface water treatment technologies, including those for run-off from car parks and roads. The introduction of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) as a planning requirement across the UK on new developments (and redevelopments) makes it necessary to provide designers of SuDS with reliable information.  The voluntary code of practice allows professionals delivering SuDS to appl

Car parking marketplace YourParkingSpace.co.uk is continuing its campaign for the introduction of SizeMark, a new parking industry standard designed to ensure that car parking spaces are large enough to accommodate modern motor vehicles.  The call comes following a study by claims company Accident Exchange that the number of collisions in car parks has gone up by 35% in the last two years. YourParkingSpace also cites AA reports that 90% of its members feel that parking spaces are too small

Almost all car parks are laid out with right-angled bays, but when a UK mathematician suggested that diagonal bays may be both more efficient and easier to use, he sparked a lively debate. While the University of Salford’s Professor David Percy believed he had come up with a way to make car park designs more user-friendly, engineers at leading car park designers Hill Cannon Consulting have disagreed.  The case for diagonal bays Professor Percy suggested that the problem with traditi

Car-maker Daimler and technology company Bosch are to work together on developing a fully automated driverless system by the start of the next decade. The two German companies believe driverless vehicles will be able to act as shared urban resources and be used by both non-car owners and non-drivers such as young and old people. Bosch and Daimler aim to develop software and algorithms for an autonomous driving system that will achieve Level 4 (high automation) and Level 5 (full automation) drive

The size, use and distribution of parking facilities may need to change considerably as connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) become more commonplace, according to a new report by the RAC Foundation. The report has been produced by Charles Johnson, group technical director of consultant CAS (Competence Assurance Solutions). He uses the Society of Automotive Engineers’ definition of the five levels of automation: Level 1 (driver assistance); 2 (partial automation); 3 (conditional automat

Westfield has drawn up plans to replace parts of the multi-storey car park serving its shopping centre in east London with retail units. Proposals to expand Westfield Stratford City would see a new shopping level with space for around 75 news stores and kiosks created under the existing Marks & Spencer store. The plans, submitted to the London Legacy Development Corporation, suggest that Level 10 of the centre’s car park would be removed, while Level 8 would undergo a change of use f

A community on the Isle of Skye is planning to create a new car park to cope with a growing number of cars belonging to visitors heading to see a dramatic rock formation called the Old Man of Storr. Staffin Community Trust has made an application to purchase local authority-owned land near the Old Man of Storr to create a 100-space car park. Besides the car park, the trust plans to provide public toilets and plant trees. It follows several years of talks between the community and the council,

NCP has launched a new commercial and client website, separate to the existing consumer website, to provide information about the products and services it offers business partners. The need for the www.ncpsolutions.co.uk website arose because the company is developing relationships with third party partners and clients across a range of products and services. The website also highlights the markets and sectors in which NCP works, including rail, airport, local authorities, retail and healthcar

Creating a car park in a factory and assembling it on site is a process that has been around for many years, but projects led by HUBER offer proof that prefabrication does not mean creating identikit buildings. HUBER is a German construction company specialising in car park design and build based on the use of a steel-frame building system. The company believes key benefits of using steel frames is that they shorten delivery times and ensure consistent quality. Prefabrication ensures better qua

Parking in the City will be the theme of the 18th European Parking Congress. The congress is the biennial gathering of the European Parking Association (EPA),  which will take place in Rotterdam, Netherlands from 20-22 September 2017.  The EPA Congress brings together participants from more than 30 countries worldwide to discuss future developments and best practices of the European parking industry.  The congress also hosts the presentation of the winners of the European Parki

Parkex, the British Parking Association’s annual conference, celebrates its silver jubilee this year. The three-day parking event runs parallel to Traffex at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC). Over 70 companies will be showcasing the latest products and services available to the parking sector in Hall 5 at the NEC between 4-6 April. Companies on show will include payment equipment manufacturers, digital parking solution developers, enforcement IT specialists and traffic

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

Car parks across Barcelona are having their lighting systems upgraded. Saba, a public-private operator running the car parks on behalf of Barcelona City Council, is adopting LED lighting at seven sites. The LED lighting systems are being installed by Circontrol, a Spanish manufacturer of parking management systems. To date, the Circontrol system has been installed at the following sites: Cambó-Mercat Sta. Caterina (590 spaces), Diputació (548), Gal·la Placídia (307),

Energy company npower has refurbished a multi-storey car park serving offices in Solihull in the West Midlands. The car park was constructed in precast and in-situ concrete with asphalt waterproofing that was suffering from water ingress, resulting in corrosive deposits dropping onto vehicles in the levels below.  The refurbishment was managed for npower by property services company, Cushman and Wakefield.  Following the use of Tremco deck waterproofing solutions on a car park servin

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

A historic city centre multi-storey car park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been reopened by Britannia Parking. The 360-space Dex Garage on New Bridge Street West was built in 1931. The 5-storey steel frame and reinforced concrete structure retains many of its original Art Deco features remaining intact. It was closed by its previous operator on Christmas Eve, but reopened under the management of Britannia on 20 January. Britannia says it is offering the cheapest day rates for parking in the city

The car parks serving Resorts World Birmingham has obtained a Park Mark under the Safer Parking Scheme. Located at the National Exhibition Centre campus, Resorts World Birmingham is billed as being Europe’s first large scale leisure and entertainment resort destination. It brings outlet shopping, eighteen bars and restaurants, hotel and spa, casino, conferencing and cinema under one roof. The car park, has two internal car parks with 570 spaces over three floors servicing all aspects

Council car parks in the Nottinghamshire towns of Worksop and Retford have attained the Park Mark standard under the Safer Parking Scheme. Eighteen out of 20 Bassetlaw District Council’s car parks have been recognised for their crime prevention measures and facilities, such as CCTV, lighting and surface reporting. The Park Mark is awarded by the police and British Parking Association (BPA) to parking facilities that have achieved the standards of the Safer Parking Scheme risk assessment.

Motorists claiming they were issued parking charge notices in a private car park because a payment terminal did not correctly register their number plates can have the tickets waived, as long as they pay an administration fee. The offer to waive the PCNs was made by the car park’s operator, Premier Parking Solutions (PPS), which runs the Keaton Road car park in Ivybridge, near Plymouth. Drivers displaying parking tickets with an incorrect vehicle registration number were deemed to be brea

The London Borough of Redbridge has been through a period of self-scrutiny, renewal and reinvention over the past 12 months. Since the arrival of new chief executive Andy Donald a year ago there have been big changes, with a new structure comprising four directorates: People, Place, Resources and Strategy. Parking, traffic management and transport now sit in Place, which is made up of three sections – Regeneration & Property, Housing and Civic Pride.  Civic Pride also covers high

An office car park in the Winnersh Triangle has been upgraded 17 years after it opened by the same contractor using the same materials. The car park at 200 Berkshire Place serves offices occupied by tenants including Sage and Amdocs.  When erected in 2000, contractor Cemplas protected the top deck of the car park using the Tretodek, Tremco’s polyurethane (PU) waterproofing system.  After almost two decades’ service the system was starting to show its age and the landlord

Improvement works at Priory Street Car Park in Colchester have been completed ahead of schedule. The  Colchester Borough Council car park has undergone a complete makeover lasting 16 weeks. It has been given new surfacing, improved landscaping and architectural lighting to celebrate the Town Wall. Colchester invested around £500,000 in the Priory Street Car Park upgrade. In developing the plans the council has consulted residents, businesses and interested parties. Scheduled Monumen

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

A high-rise apartment building being built in the Hertfordshire town of Hemel Hempstead will feature an automated car park and a range of mobility services designed to reduce its carbon footprint. The 16-floor Beacon tower is being developed on Symbio Place by Lumiere Developments (which trades as Corona Properties). It will provide 208 apartments as well as office space. Corona says it aims to create a “vertical village” that uses renewable energy generation and energy conservation

Britannia Parking has upgraded pay & display machines at West Quay Retail Park in Southampton to enable shoppers to pay using contactless technology. Britannia, which runs the 900 spaces at West Quay Retail Park on behalf of Aviva Life & Pensions UK, has installed 13 Parkeon terminals at the site. All the Strada Rapide Evo 2 terminals accept contactless bank card payments in addition to chip & PIN and coin transactions. Each terminal has also been enabled to accept the new £

Jim Hill, a pioneer of modern car park design, has died at the age of 85. In 1967 he and John Cannon formed the consulting practice Hill Cannon & Partners. In the early 1970s Hill Cannon sought to tackle a common problem in multi-storey car parks: concrete columns sitting between parked cars, making it difficult to open doors and creating poor sight lines. Working with a local contractor, Hill Cannon developed one of the world’s first clear-span, modular structural frames for multi-st

NCP has retained the Park Mark award for nine of its 10 car parks at Birmingham Airport after an assessment by West Midlands Police. It is the seventh consecutive year that NCP has achieved the standard, awarded via the Safer Parking Scheme. Tom Freeman, operations manager for NCP at Birmingham Airport, said: “The safety of passengers using our car parks is our biggest priority, so to receive recognition for our commitment to this is very gratifying. In the last year, we have invested an

All five car parks run by Charnwood Borough Council in Loughborough town centre have had their Park Marks renewed. Four sites – Granby Street, Browns Lane, Southfields Road and Southfields Road office – have received the Park Mark award for the eighth year in a row, while Beehive Lane car park has held the award for 12 years. The sites received the Park Mark for ensuring a safer environment with a high standard of cleanliness, signage, surveillance and lighting. Cllr David Hayes, t

A car park created by farmers to provide spaces for rail users in Northamptonshire has received a Park Mark. Farming family Jackson & Co identified the need for parking at Long Buckby Station after noticing how many cars were parked on adjacent roads. The family obtained planning permission for a 290-space car park, helping reduce the number of vehicles parked on the approach road. The car park is operated for the family by Indigo Park Solutions. The Jackson family said: “We are rea

A Costco store in Birmingham has reduce its energy consumption by around 70% by adopting LED lighting in its underground shoppers’ car park.  The car park had around 300 metal halide light fittings. Due to the nature of the car park, fixture replacements would have required extra drilling into the concrete structure, creating a lot of mess and disruption to the car park. Instead, a retrofitting approach was adopted, with Costco’s lighting maintenance contractor Solent Lighting

The multi-storey car park serving a shopping centre in Aberdeen has been refurbished at a cost of £2m. The Loch Street car park provides 1,400 spaces for the Bon Accord centre, which has around 100 stores. The multi-storey car park has four floors, with parking extending on to the roof of the centre, which is beneath it in a small basement parking area. The shopping centre and car park are owned by BMO Real Estate Ventures.  The car park refurbishment was undertaken between March a

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

Is it possible to lessen the frustration of finding a parking space in large car parks? An academic from Salford Business School at the University of Salford may have come up with the solution. Mathematician Professor David Percy has come up with a way to make car park designs more user-friendly. He believes the technique could lessen the pain of finding a space. In a paper published in Mathematics Today, Prof. Percy shows how most modern car parks are designed in an inefficient way, which limi

Whilst cars have grown in height, capacity and weight, the fundamental dimensions for both new build and refurbished car parks remain largely unchanged. What may have been an easy car park to access and egress in the Sixties may now be considered as a tight and awkward place to park. The changing shape of cars is just one of many factors that affect the operation and performance of parking structures over time. These include changes in standards for lighting, security and the design and robustn

Makers is continuing to develop its British Parking Award-winning apprenticeship scheme, recruiting three young people interested in careers in construction. The apprenticeships are run by Makers in cooperation with Walsall College.  Edward Smith joins Makers as a site manager apprentice after hearing the company address his sixth form about careers in construction. He was interested in the scheme as he did not want the burden of student loans and liked the ability to ‘earn and learn

The iconic Preston Bus Station and Car Park is to be refurbished over the coming months. Makers Construction has been appointed as the specialist refurbishment contractor to work alongside principle contractor Conlon Construction within their framework with Lancashire County Council. The bus station, designed by Keith Ingram and Charles Wilson of Building Design Partnership (BDP), is regarded as a key piece of Brutalist architecture. The building, which was constructed between 1968 and 1969, is

A retail car park in Chelmsford underwent a complete refurbishment in just seven weeks this summer. The 391-space Meadows multi-storey offers short-stay shoppers’ parking in Chelmsford city centre. The Meadows is one of several multi-storey car parks owned and operated by Chelmsford City Council which, as parking asset owners, has taken a pro-active approach to the maintenance and upkeep of their parking structures. The council believes keeping parking assets in prime condition helps attra

Refurbishment contractor Cemplas Waterproofing & Concrete Repairs has expanded its team, hiring Tom Revett as contracts manager, car parks and Graeme Middleton as business development Manager. Both Revett and Middleton both previously worked in the car park refurbishment sector with Makers Construction. Tony Blencowe, Cemplas’ managing director, said: “As we implement the next phase in our strategic growth plan, securing the services of both Tom and Graeme is a big win for us. C

A car park created to serve a new shopping area in the United Arab Emirates has taken the board game Monopoly as its inspiration. The underground car park serves City Walk, a new commercial district in Dubai created by developer Meraas Holdings.  Designed by UK architects Benoy, the scheme features high-end retail outlets, restaurants and leisure attractions organised to emulate a city high street.  The UAE’s shopping landscape mainly consists of indoor malls due to the extreme

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

Most parking terminals in Wandsworth will be cashless after a recent upgrade of the London borough’s on-street pay & display stock. The south London council has just installed 177 Parkeon StradaPAL terminals as part of a renewal programme. They replace machines that were up to 17 years old. The new batch follows the installation of 140 StradaPAL machines during 2014.  All the new terminals selected by Wandsworth are solar-powered and are Chip & PIN and contactless card

A 500-space car park forms part of a new retail development in Beverley, East Yorkshire. The £120m Flemingate regeneration project has been created by developer Wykeland Group on a site on the opposite side of the railway tracks to the historic town centre, which is dominated by a 15th century Minster. The shopping centre offers stores such as Debenhams, H&M and River Island, as well as cafés, restaurants, a hotel and cinema. The wider regeneration project also encompasses a c

The initial design of a new retail and leisure development will be served by surface parking for Glenrothes town centre in Scotland. Easy Living Developments has signed up Marks & Spencer as the anchor tenant, along with a Marsdens gastro pub and a Tony Macaroni restaurant. The site, which is currently occupied by a social club, has been earmarked for redevelopment for several years. Tesco had planned to build a store on it, but pulled out of the scheme in 2013. Construction of the new bui

Parking pay stations are set to have a whole new lease of life, transformed from single function machines into smart terminals that offer a range of public services. Alongside taking payment for parking, the next generation of terminals will enable people to rent bikes, charge their electric cars and even monitor the quality of the air they breathe. This is the vision of Bertrand Barthélemy, chief executive of parking and transport solution provider Parkeon. He envisages the company&rsqu

A dozen car parks in the Lincolnshire towns of Stamford and Grantham have retained their Park Mark status under the Safer Parking Scheme. The car parks are operated by South Kesteven District Council, which was recently awarded the Disabled Parking Accreditation from Disabled Motoring UK. Cllr Nick Craft, executive member for the environment, said: “We’re pleased to announce a further award for our car parks that shows we are maintaining good standards year on year.

Britannia Parking has re-opened a Wrexham multi-storey car park that had been closed for almost a year. The operator has taken over the 307-space St Mark’s car park, off Regent Street, after it was closed by its former operator, NCP, in September of last year. NCP had decided not to renew the lease it held on the structure. Mark Watts, Britannia Group commercial development manager, said: “We understand how important multi-storey sites are for town centres and the l

NCP wants to rename one of its London car parks as “The Sarah multi-Storey” to honour sporting achievements of the British athlete Dame Sarah Storey. NCP has suggested it will rename its Saffron Hill Car Park to mark the sporting achievements of Storey, a multiple gold medal winner in road and track cycling events at the Paralympics. Hema Nagar, head of marketing at NCP said: “Given her name, we felt that Dame Sarah Storey might appreciate our gesture. She has made an unr

Scores of East Midlands Trains stations and car parks have been officially recognised for their safety and security by two national schemes. Some 58 stations on the network have been accredited under the Secure Stations Scheme, which is administered by the Department for Transport and British Transport Police. The scheme represents a national standard for passenger safety and security on Britain’s railway stations. Some 23 of the stations have been newly accredited follow

The government will host a roundtable debate on parking for heavy goods vehicles, transport minister John Hayes has announced. The discussion, which will include truck stop operators and the freight industry, was promised during a Westminster Hall debate at the Houses of Parliament on 7 September. The debate saw MPs from across the UK share their concerns about the negative impact poor HGV parking has on the haulage industry, local communities and the wider economy.

PARK(ing) Day, which sees citizens, artists and activists around the world temporarily transform parking spaces into temporary public places, will next take place on Friday 16 September.  The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since then, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organisations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar

The finishing touches are being made to the car park serving Hammersons’ new Victoria Gate shopping centre in Leeds, which is set to open in the autumn. The £165m retail development will feature 65 stores, including a John Lewis department store as its main anchor outlet. Other retailers include Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, GANT, Hackett and Anthropologie, as well as fine dining restaurant group D&D. The 800-space multi-storey car park has a façade designed to create a

Q-Park has started refurbishment of Liverpool’s Queen Square car park, a site it acquired from developer Promenade Estates in December 2015. The operator is spending around £750,000 upgrading the 601-space facility. The car park will be given a new entrance area, with upgraded barrier and pay-on-foot systems. New lighting sensor systems will be installed throughout the 14 floors. The car park’s external and internal signage will be redesigned improve way finding. The lobby are

Civil enforcement officers are the front line of the UK’s public parking management regimes. These uniformed staff are tasked with ensuring the kerbside operates efficiently, enabling people and businesses to park or deliver and collect goods where and when they need. While civil enforcement officers (CEOs) will bear the names and insignia of local authorities, many will be employees for contractors, and a good proportion will work for NSL, which fields over 4,000 CEOs in towns and cities

A car park is set to be transformed into an underground art gallery in Croydon, south London. The 2,000m2 gallery is a key part the £750m Fairfield Halls and College Green regeneration, which will see the area transformed into an arts and education quarter. The Fairfield Halls, whose design was influenced by the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, have been the Croydon’s cultural centre since they opened in 1963. The £30m refurbishment of the halls, designed by Rick Mather

Q-Park has taken over the management of the Pierhead Street car park in Cardiff. The car park has been rebranded as Q-Park Cardiff Bay ahead of a refurbishment programme.  The car park, sometimes referred to as ‘The Wave’ on account of its façade’s distinctive cladding, had been operated by APCOA UK & Ireland. The multi-storey provides 1,238 spaces for residents and office workers in the Cardiff Waterside development. It also has an exclusive parking partnersh

Work has started on the Lincoln Transport Hub, a £30m scheme that will transform the city centre through the construction of a new bus station, 1,000-space multi-storey car park, retail units and pedestrian plaza area connecting the new facilities with Lincoln Central Railway Station.  It is hoped the £29m scheme will help improve city centre journeys for people living, working or visiting the town and so deliver a boost to the economy. The scheme is expected to create up to 20

The Warsaw Spire became the tallest office building in Poland this spring. The Spire is a complex consisting of a 220-metre high-rise and two other office buildings, each 55 metres high. The development is within an area called the European Square, where visitors can also find trees, fountains, cafes and an art gallery. Developer Ghelamco Poland designed the complex to provide office space for approximately 8,000 people. A five-storey underground car park was built beneath the lot, with space f

Brandon Haw, a British architect working out of New York, is the latest ‘starchitect’ to build a car park in Miami, Florida. Haw’s design for a mixed-use development on 400 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, was approved with no alterations by the Miami Planning Board Commission on 12 July. The Torino Garage has been commissioned by New York property investor Eric Hader. Haw, a former Norman Foster partner, has previously designed two condominium apartment towers in Miami. His car p

Norwich City Council’s new Rose Lane multi-storey car park has been completed. The car park and an adjacent office building is designed to kick-start the regeneration of the Mountergate area of the city centre. The car park is also intended to remove traffic from the city centre. The Rose Lane car park was built on the site of a former fish market and fire station, adjacent to an existing surface car park. The new car park provides 595 parking bays, including 36 spaces for disabled driver

A multi-storey car park is a key element of the £107m Time Square regeneration scheme in the centre of Warrington. Time Square is the new name for Warrington Borough Council’s Bridge Street Quarter regeneration project that is being delivered in partnership with Muse Developments via an entity called Warrington & Co. Steve Park, managing director of Warrington & Co, said: “The construction of the multi-storey car park is an important part of the Time Square regeneratio

Most drivers are broadly satisfied with the services on offer at motorway services areas, but major improvements are needed to the facilities provided for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, says independent watchdog Transport Focus. The organisation’s new report, Take a Break, examines the views of drivers and road users on roadside facilities in the UK. Jeff Halliwell, Transport Focus’s chairman, said: “People’s needs are largely functional. They want to use the toile

A pop-up restaurant has taken over the rooftop car park of the former BBC Television Centre in West London. The car park has become a roof terrace featuring a hanging pergola which gives the destination its name. The Pergola restaurant has seating for 400 people and will run at the car park until 28 August. The BBC was based at the iconic doughnut shaped Television Centre between 1960 and 2013. The building was a

The £250m lorry area intended to ease traffic problems caused by Operation Stack will be built near Stanford in Kent, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced.  The lorry is intended to keep the M20 moving during disruption to cross-channel services. At present, Highways England has to implement Operation Stack, a procedure that

The success of the Leave campaign in the referendum on European Union (EU) membership will have an impact on almost every aspect of life in Britain. The constitutional, political, economic, social, cultural and personal consequences of Brexit will be far-reaching. Central government and national assemblies, local authorities, businesses, academic institutions and individuals are all currently trying to digest what exiting the EU will mean for them. The parking sector will be affected across the

The European Parking Association (EPA) was founded in 1983 and, today, is composed of 22 national parking associations representing both public and private parking operators, the equipment industry and the services sector. The EPA’s parking supply, which total 46 million on-street and off-street managed paid spaces, is used annually for 10 billion visits in urban areas. The British Parking Association joined the EPA in 2000 and since then has contributed constantly via  its qualified

Rebuilding a rail station that sits opposite the entrance of Hatfield House, one of England’s greatest stately homes, posed both a design and a logistical challenge for Network Rail. In a move that may surprise some, it was a challenge largely solved by building a multi-storey car park. Hatfield Station is located on the East Coast mainline, 17 miles north of London Kings Cross. The station is owned by Network Rail and operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). Over the past three years t

Parkeon revealed its plans for terminal-based environmental monitoring, bike rental and car sharing at Parkex 2016. Parkeon believes that on-street and off-street parking terminals could soon be driving services as diverse as air quality monitoring, bike rental and holiday park management.  “We’re redefining the role of parking machines,” said Danny Hassett, Parkeon’s regional parking director. “In effect, our parking terminals are open platform multi-service

Plymouth City Council has become the first UK local authority to roll out Parkeon’s City Connector scheme, which enables local retailers to offer couponing and discounts via the company’s StradaPAL parking terminals. The transformation of parking terminals into multi-service kiosks provides businesses with a new marketing channel by enabling both motorists and pedestrians to scroll through and print coupons and special offers redeemable in the local area. The Plymouth project cover

Horsham District Council is analysing data generated by its parking terminals to help develop and implement future parking strategies.  The Sussex council has installed 13 Parkeon Strada terminals in its town centre control zone, all which are linked to a centralised management information system.  The Parkfolio management system’s networking functionality provides real-time information that enables the timely collection of cash, fault logging and ticket roll replacement. The

A businessman has taken the unusual step of buying a council car park and making it free to use. Rob Braddick bought a 50-year lease on the Seafield Car Park in the Devon village of Westward Ho! in May. Previously there had been a £3 daily charge at the 20-space coastal car park run by Torridge District Council. But Braddick, owner of several local bars, restaurants and holiday centres, announced on Facebook that the site could be used free of charge.  He stated: “Hot off the

Brighton & Hove City Council is planning to invest £1.8m upgrading its on-street parking terminals so that over 80% are pay-by-card only. This would see the number of machines that take coins dropping from the current 800 to just 150. The authority plans to procure 320 new pay & display units and update 330 existing P&D units, which would accept Chip & PIN and contactless card payment only. Another 150 machines would accept both cards and the new 12-sided £1 coin, whi

Car park waterproofing system manufacturer Triflex UK has appointed Jonny Cross as business development manager, with responsibility for its car parks and infrastructure business unit across Scotland.  Cross has worked in the Scottish construction sector for several years with SIG Construction Accessories and, most recently, Fosroc.  Normal 0 false

Parking China, which was launched in Shanghai this year, will return to the city next year. The second edition of the event will form a strand of the Intelligent Green Building exhibition, which runs from 5-7 September 2017.  Parking China is jointly organised by Messe Frankfurt (Shanghai) and Langfang Conference & Exhibition Company to serve China’s rapdily developing parking industry. The

A grass-roofed motorway service area has been honoured by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Gloucester Services is one of 46 projects on the 2016 RIBA National Awards list. The list also includes offices, schools, offices, hospitals, libraries, art studios and galleries, R&D facilities, performance spaces and private homes.  RIBA praised the sensitive design of the main building parking areas at Gloucester Services, which is located at Junction 11a on the M5. The j

An underground car park has been named the Best Dutch Building of the Year 2016 by the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA). The parking garage in Katwijk aan Zee was selected from 125 submissions. In addition, it has also received the People’s Choice Award. The jury said the parking garage is an “exceptionally beautiful object” that links the town to the sea seamlessly through its integration with the natural environment. “The underground parking is ground breaking

The refurbishment of staff parking areas at the headquarters of National Grid in Warwick have received an award from the Mastic Asphalt Council (MAC). Contractors Rio Asphalt and  Radflex Contract Servicesm along with materials supplier IKO, were presented with the MAC Challenge Trophy at a ceremony held at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in London on 14 June. National Grid has been upgrading its HQ’s staff and visitor parking areas. A new multi-storey has been built while two existing

Flooring technology company Flowcrete Group has appointed Craig Brookes as its new president.  He takes over from Mark Greaves, who becomes president of The Euclid Group, a construction chemicals group within Flowcrete’s parent company, RPM International.  Brookes has been with Flowcrete for 20 years and was previously group vice-president and international managing director. “In my two decades at Flowcrete I’ve seen the company expand and grow from a small UK busin

A multi-storey car park in Peckham will be one of the venues of BBC Proms in September. The Multi-Story Orchestra, which is resident at the Bold Tendencies car park, will make its Proms debut performing works by the American minimalist composer Steve Reich on 3 September. Christopher Stark will conduct a programme comprising Vermont Counterpoint, Eight Lines and Music for a Large Ensemble.

Peckham Levels, an underused municipal car park that is now a cultural hub, is hosting an exhibition during the London Festival of Architecture 2016. The Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA) ran a competition asking architects how architecture can help build communities. The 16 long listed entrants are on show at Peckham Levels until 30 June. The long list included works by De Rosee Sa, DH Liberty, Weston Williamson + Partners and Tate Harmer.  The three winners, who have

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

Irish car park management company Nationwide Controlled Parking Systems has added six multi-storey car parks to its portfolio and rolled out a new software system. The new car parks locations are: Navan Town Centre; Steamboat Quay, Limerick; Exchange Hall, Tallaght; Tallaght Retail Centre; Castle Street and Belfast Met College, Belfast. These six locations add 4,300 car park spaces and 18 staff to the NCPS portfolio. NCPS employs 130 staff across Ireland and manage over 100,000

Canterbury City Council in Kent is trialling ticketless parking using systems developed by Parkeon. The trial sees Canterbury become the first district in the UK to introduce Parkeon mobile and website payment options alongside the company’s MiniPark automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology.  MiniPark integrates ANPR cameras and barriers on car park entry and exit lanes.  In a first for Parkeon in the UK, the company’s Whoosh! app has been introduced alongside

A desire to provide a consistent parking experience across two nearby shopping centre car parks in a South Wales town has prompted Queensbury Real Estates to specify the same pay-on-foot system at both sites. Queensbury opted to use the WPS ParkAdvance pay-on-foot system at the Kingsway and Friars Walk centres in Newport.  The Kingsway centre is a 1960s scheme that Queensbury acquired in 2014. It is served by 1,050 parking spaces. Nearby is Friars Walk, a retail and leisure complex that op

The Friars Walk shopping centre and car park in Newport, Gwent have been recognised at the National Roofing Awards. The Vertical Cladding Award was presented to Met-Clad Contracts for seamlessly integrating glazing and cladding across the mall and car park. The multi-storey has been clad using a mix of gold coloured aluminium rain screen and perforated metal mesh. The shopping centre has been faced with a mix of red glaze terracotta and black granite rain screen tiles over composite wall panel

Plans to build more apartment buildings, retail areas and workplaces around Wembley Stadium have triggered concerns about traffic congestion. Brent Council approved a £2.5bn masterplan for Wembley Park on 11 May despite a strongly worded objection by the Football Association (FA).

Big data, mobile communications and social media will change both the automobile and the way in which we use them in the 21st Century, says a new report published by the British Parking Association (BPA). 20:20: Our vision for the future of parking summaries research commissioned by the BPA to explore the future of parking and intelligent mobility. The BPA intends the document to

The Co-op has used surplus land in a public car park to create a supermarket in Wrexham, Wales. The Co-op worked with NewRiver Retail, owner of the Red Lion pub on Marford Hill, to create the store. The Co-op and NewRiver have shared the £1m investment in the project, which will create 20 jobs. Craig Emery, manager if the new store, said: “As a community retailer, and a co-operative, we are confident that the store will become a real asset to the community, playing a real part in l

According to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, ‘vemödalen’ is the frustration of trying to photograph something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist – the same sunset, the same waterfall, the same curve of a hip, the same close-up of an eye – that turn a unique subject into something hollow, pulpy and cheap. Vanquishing vemödalen was the notion behind a recent commission designed inspire photographers to identify the creative potential of e

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

Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 short-stay car park has been expanded to house a further 1,400 spaces on the back of growing passenger numbers. An additional four floors have been added to the two-storey car park, taking the total number of spaces to 2,500. The extra spaces will help to service increasing passenger numbers - a rise of 17% was reported in the first quarter of 2015. Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) opened Terminal 2 (T2) in November 2010 to accommodate passengers travelling with

Parkeon says that all payment systems made from 1 April will incorporate new coin selectors in readiness for the release of the new £1 coin, which will enter circulation in March 2017.  Parkeon has been working with both the Treasury and The Royal Mint throughout the consultation process of replacing the current £1 coin after 33 years; in circulation.  Parkeon has created a dedicated production department at its Bristol service centre. Paul Wright, UK parking service man

Over half-a-million luxury cars made by prestige UK marques including Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Land Rover, Range Rover and Jaguar are exported every year. Most of these cars are shipped out of the country via the Port of Southampton. The new cars are delivered by rail or road to Southampton from factories in Crewe, Cowley, Chichester, Solihull and Halewood.  On arrival, they are driven off the transporters or trains and parked in car storage facilities until the ship arrives to take them away

National Car Parks is embarking on a second phase of upgrading lighting across its estate, replacing existing fittings with energy efficient light-emitting diode (LED) fittings at around 110 sites. The project sees around 7,500 light-emitting diode (LED) fittings at multi-storey car parks, roof decks and surface car parks. Phase one of the project involved retro-fitting 149 multi-storey car parks with LED fittings during 2014. Both phases were undertaken at no capital cost to NCP via a deal ar

An office car park in the Channel Isles has been upgraded after water penetration through the top deck rendered lower decks unusable. The Trafalgar Court car park in St Peter Port on Guernsey, is used by staff employed by Northern Trust, an offshore financial institution. The car park was only built 12 years ago, but the original top deck waterproofing steadily deteriorated over the years until it reached a stage where water seaped through to lower levels. Local architect Brittain Hadley Partne

The University of Leeds has built a new multi-storey car park for its city centre campus. The car park provides 690 spaces for students, staff and visitors on a site adjacent to the proposed Innovation City Leeds Building. The car park was built on the site of an existing surface car park. Building the multi-storey created brownfield space for the university’s masterplan.  Dennis Hopper, director of facilities management at the University of Leeds, said: “The car park improves

American company Cambridge Architectural has launched a stainless steel mesh pattern and exterior cladding system designed for parking facades. With an open area of 82%, the Hudson panel is designed provides a high level of ventilation with a flat wire thickness capable of screening indirect sunlight and exterior views from the street. The Maryland-based company says that Hudson panels can span large vertical surfaces with min

Independent testing carried out at the VINCI Construction Technology Centre has confirmed that Flexcrete’s Cementitious Coating 851 will provide an effective barrier to chlorides for at least 27 years. Cementitious Coating 851 is a two component, waterborne cementitious modified polymer coating designed for the structural waterproofing of reinforced concrete. It forms a hard, highly alkaline coating to protect concrete from the effects of aggressive acid gases, moisture and chlorides. It

English Heritage is imposing a £15 charge for parking at Stonehenge during this year’s Summer Solstice celebrations. The charge is designed to encourage more people to use public transport or to car-share. This is the first time a charge will have been levied on revellers parking in fields near the Stonehenge visitors’ centre for the event, which attracted 40,000 people last year.  The Summer Solstice, which takes place on 21 June, marks the longest day. The event attract

Dame Zaha Hadid, the Iranian-born British architect who has died aged 65, was best known for projects such as the Aquatic Centre for the 2012 London Olympics, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, also in London, and MAXXI Museum in Rome. She also designed the Al-Wakrah Stadium in Dubai, which will be centrepiece of the World Cup 2022. In 2004 she became the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize for her work on the Guangzhou Opera House in China. But among the art galleries, sports centr

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

The National Grid’s headquarters in Warwick have been expanding and now home to over 3,000 staff. The increased workforce led to a need for more parking. The creation of a new staff parking area posed a challenge as the site’s footprint was determined by existing buildings and roads.  And as the car park was within view of the historic Warwick Castle, its visual impact had to be kept to a minimum. National Grid worked with Warwick City Council on how the building would integra

A car park that appears to be wrapped in metal ribbons is a landmark structure in a new commercial quarter in Greater Manchester that provides high-quality office space along with retail, leisure and residential buildings. The car park has a central location within the New Bailey scheme, which is a few minutes’ walk from Spinningfields, Manchester’s commercial and leisure district, and Salford Central train station.  The Salford Central regeneration scheme is being delivered b

Merry Hill is a major regional shopping complex in the West Midlands owned by intu Properties and Queensland Investment Corporation. Every year over 23.5 million people are attracted to intu Merry Hill’s 220 stores, 40 places to eat, cinema and other attractions. The vast majority of shoppers arrive and depart via its 8,000 parking spaces. One problematic area was the Purple Car Park, a three-level multi-storey. Some steel support beams, soffits and columns had become severely corroded ov

Building on airports is a challenge, as the team that created the Park & Depart facility at Aberdeen International Airport discovered. The Scottish airport has a customer base comprising business and leisure passengers flying from its main terminal, as well as four heliports serving oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Growing passenger numbers led the airport deciding to create a new long-term car park. The airport approached APCOA UK & Ireland, which manages its three on-site car p

The perception of car parks as being dark, dirty and unsafe places is becoming a distant memory. Instead, brightly lit, clean and neat sites are becoming an everyday experience for drivers. A key factor in the improving quality of car parks across the UK has been the Safer Parking Scheme, which sets a national standard for car parks that have low crime and measures in place to ensure the safety of people and vehicles. To be accredited under the scheme a car park has to achieve a challenging set

The realities of an ageing workforce with dying skills and knowledge led to Makers Construction, a company specialising in the refurbishment of car parks, setting about the task of hiring new site managers. The problem was that the pool of talent was very small and Makers struggled over a number of years to find the quality of site manager it needed.  The solution seemed to be train a new generation of parking experts. Over many years Makers had trained white collar professional trainees,

Hydrogen fuel cells are being touted as a means of delivering low emission cars. But why stop there? What if clean energy cars could then become mini power plants. This is an idea that has won a Dutch student the top prize in a competition run by a European university and parking company. Rotterdam’s Erasmus University and Q-Park organised a competition to the best master's thesis about parking from students at universities across the Netherlands and Flanders. The Ward Vleugels Q-Park The

The demand for affordable housing in towns and cities is increasingly intense. However, the need to assemble suitable plots of land and traditional construction both increases the cost and time taken to deliver homes. One solution could be to create pre-fabricated structures on top of car parks. The use of lightweight structures would require minimal groundworks and enable cars to be parked beneath them. This is the thinking behind the Zedpod, which was unveiled at the Ecobuild exhibition in Lo

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) has published a good practice guide for solar car parks. The guidance shows how car park owners can maximize the economic and environmental performance of their assets by deploying PV technologies. Jonny Williams, director of the BRE National Solar Centre Jonny Williams said: “Solar carports are an excellent way of improving the car-parking experience, whilst also generating clean electricity. With over 17,000 car parks in th

Just before the Easter getaway takes place, a survey of 85 pit-stops on the England’s motorway network has revealed conflicting signs, worn road markings and bewildering road layouts.  The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) report, issued today, shows scores for the external layout of motorway service areas, including two criteria for pedestrians: amenity (‘are walkways in place?’); and quality (‘are they visible, logical, easy to use?’).

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 

Parkeon has launched a smartphone app that enables local authorities to identify available parking spaces without the need to invest in ANPR and sensors. The Park-to-Path app uses a Parkeon-developed algorithm to interrogate transaction data from the Parkfolio back office system used by the city council.  The system looks at parking patterns on a city-wide level to produce a dynamic map for motorists seeking a space. Path-to-Park also integrates with Parkeon’s mobile paym

Planning permission for Bristol’s new £92.5m arena has been withheld because of concerns over transport and parking provision at the site. The 12,000-seater venue, which is being championed by the city’s mayor George Ferguson, will be located next to Bristol Temple Meads railway station.  Bristol City Council's development control committee said the plans lacked detail and were not ready for a decision. Among issues raised were parking problems for neighbouring residents

An 80-space roof car park at a shopping centre has remained empty since it was built six years ago as there is no way a car can access the site. The privately owned car park, which is owned by property group St Modwen, is on the roof of a three-storey gym at Queensmead, part of the Princes Mead shopping centre in Farnborough, Hants. Access to the car park is by stairs or lift only, as the ramps and bridges allowing vehicle access have not yet been built. A spokesman for Rushmoor Borough Counci

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

Two companies working in the field of architectural textiles have merged with the aim of producing lightweight fabric structures and carports to generate clean solar energy. Solar Cloth Company (SCC) has merged with Base Structures (BASE). The two companies will continue to trade under their respective names. SCC designs lightweight copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar technology to non-load bearing roofs. BASE designs, manufactures and installs fabric structures including the ‘Up

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 car park serving a Manchester shopping centre has been upgraded.  Crown Point North is a 19,705m² retail park consisting of 30 units including several high street retailers such as TK Maxx, Marks & Spencer, Boots, River Island, Tesco and BHS. Located just off the motorway network at Denton, three miles east of Manchester city centre, Crown Point is served by a 798-space car park. The centre is managed for the British Land Company by estate managers Savills, which commissione

A 169-space parking deck has been built to serve a mixed-use development in Cheshire. The Square in Hale Barns features a supermarket for Booths, an independent food retail operating in the North of England. There are also five prime retail spaces and 24 apartments for sale. The car park is a split-level structure built by main contractor Eric Wright Construction. The contractor commissioned waterproofing specialist Stirling Lloyd Construction to waterproof the 1,400m² structure using its

A frozen lake being used as a car park during a winter festival in the United States made headlines when the vehicles started sinking. When Lake Geneva in Wisconsin freezes it is used as a temporary parking area during Winter Fest, an annual event that includes the US National Snow Sculpting Championship. On 6 February the car park started melting and 15 vehicles sunk into the lake after the ice cracked. Lake Geneva Fire Department called in divers to retrieve the submerged vehicles, ten of th

There are times, when stuck in a queue at a car park or circling the streets of a town centre on a busy shopping day, that most drivers probably feel there are more cars than parking spaces. In China, that equation seems to be reality. In 2014, over 154 million private cars were registered in China, but the number of available official parking spaces was less than 100 million. According to international standards, approximately 1.4 parking spaces should be allocated to every one car.  In

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

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

Britannia Parking has spent £300,000 upgrading Weymouth’s only multi-storey car park, installing new lighting and a pay-on-foot system that features ANPR. The 470-space car park, which is located on Commercial Road, serves shops, including a pedestrian link to a Debenhams department store, restaurants and offices, as well as the local cinema, beach and leisure attractions. Brian Parker, Britannia Parking’s managing director, said: “The car park is the first of our sites

Parking equipment supplier Cale UK has appointed Christopher Octon as its new managing director. Octon spent 20 years with rival parking and transit system manufacturer Parkeon, holding a range of roles.  His most recent post was as president of Parkeon in North America, a role he held for almost four years. Octon said: “My goals for Cale UK are to ensure we build a customer service focus into our team and ensure we listen and respond to our customers needs. At the same time ensuri

The Transport Select Committee has launched an inquiry into Operation Stack and the government’s plans to build a new lorry park in Kent. Operation Stack sees sections of the M20 used to manage the build-up of goods vehicles in Kent when there is disruption to cross-Channel ferry and rail services. In November 2015 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced funding of up to £250m for a permanent lorry park to increase resilience in Kent, by taking pressure off the roads in the event

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

Car park owners and operators around the world are waking up to a new potential in the estates they control. From Miami to Bordeaux, from Peckham to Blackpool, new approaches to the design and use of this building type are giving our cities a new lease of life. Last September London Fashion Week spurned Somerset House in favour of the Brewer Street car park off Oxford Street. The £28bn British fashion industry had found an unexpected building type in which to demonstrate its wares to the

Q-Park UK has taken over the management of the car park for Edinburgh city centre’s Quartermile development, which is located near to Princes Street and University of Edinburgh. The underground car park provides 468 spaces for business, residential and leisure facility. Q-Park said it will upgrade the site’s parking equipment and carry out a refurbishment in line with its corporate branding.

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

Increasing use of phone parking has enabled Camden Council to remove over 500 pay & display machines in the past year. Over the last 12 months the north London council has removed 70% of its on-street parking machines. The reduction in pay station use comes on the back of increased cashless parking usage, according to Cobalt Telephone Technologies, parent company for RingGo.  The council sees reducing the use of parking terminals as a way of cutting costs. Nicolina Cooper, head of park

Nottingham tram network’s latest park & ride sites, opened as part of NET’s recent expansion, have attained Park Mark status under the Secured Car Park scheme. The new sites at Toton Lane and Clifton South, offer over 2,300 free parking spaces between them. Located at the end of the two new tram lines, the surface sites have extensive lighting, and are covered by a high-tech CCTV system. The Park Mark awards were presented to Nottingham Trams by Nottinghamshire Police and Crime

The Castle Mall car park in Norwich has been refurbished by Makers Construction. The 710-space car park, which was built in 1989, is a reinforced concrete structure that has been protected over the years with a range of surface treatments.  Epoxy resin-based coatings had originally been applied to the eight parking decks – including driving aisles and ramps – to protect against the ingress of contaminants such as de-icing salts brought in by vehicles.  The walls, columns

The British Parking Awards shine a spotlight on the most imaginative, inspiring and innovative projects, people and ideas in the parking sector. The awards were launched by Parking Review magazine in 2002 with the aim of recognising the best examples of car park management, enforcement, design and teamwork. Since then they have gone on to become the most sought after accolades in the sector, with over 100 enrries being received on average every year. The deadline for entries to the 2016 awards

A new car park on the banks of the River Snow in Stafford will feature restaurants and be a key element of a major retail development. Stafford’s £100m Riverside scheme is reimagining the site of the old Riverside Recreation Centre, derelict Tesco store and the aging Bridge Street multi-storey car park on its roof. Tesco left the site for a purpose-built store several years ago and the car park closed in 2009 due to structural issues. Demolition of the Bridge Street car park in 201

A rundown multi-storey in Peckham is to be transformed into a community hub for local artists and businesses. Southwark Council has selected Pop Community Ltd as the interim manager of the council’s six-level car park for the next five years. After that the site will be turned into a residential development, with affordable housing making up a third of the new properties, the council states.  The Pop Community project, called Peckham Levels, will offer more than 20,000sq ft of artist

The conversion of front gardens into parking is a major contributor to the increasing risk of flooding, warns a draft drainage plan for London. The capital may be at risk from major flooding by 2050 without a radical changes to its sustainable drainage system to support over-capacity sewers, says the first ever London Sustainable Drainage Action Plan, which is now open for consultation. Around 17% of permeable ground surface in London has been lost over the last 40 years, largely due to the tre

A mess of conflicting signs, worn-away road markings and bewildering road layouts… and that’s before you get out of the car. This is the reality of ‘taking a break’ at many motorway service areas, according to a survey carried out by the Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA), which represents 95% of the road marking sector in the UK.  The RSMA surveyed 85 pit-stops on England’s motorway network. It assessed the external layout of motorway service areas. Two

A grassed car park has been opened within the walls of a long neglected walled garden at Plymouth’s Royal William Yard, a former Royal Navy victualling depot. The 140-space car park has been designed by Will Hoare of Dartington-based Gillespie Yunnie Architects designed. The regeneration of the Plymouth landmark has been led by developers, Urban Splash. The area is now home to cafés, bars, restaurants, museum, art galleries, offices and residential properties. The car park is situ

Courtyards and car parks at Aberdeen’s new International Business Park are designed to help protect the water quality of the River Dee, a well-known salmon river. The business park, which is being built next to Aberdeen International Airport, features a Sustainable Drainage (SuDS) scheme that employs filtration and bioretention technologies to meet planning and pollutant removal criteria required by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Project consultants Mott MacDon

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

Nine Great Western Railway (GWR) station car parks run by APCOA Parking (UK) have been awarded Park Mark. Peter Broad, Park Mark assessor, and Chas Cannon, senior area manager for the British Parking Association, found the car parks had experienced either no or very low crime levels over the past 12 months. The assessments were carried out throughout June and July at Bath Spa, Stonehouse, Yatton, Western Super Mare, Keynsham, Stroud (two car parks), Swindon (three car parks), Trowbridge (two ca

Works to repair Broadgate car park in Lincoln city centre have been completed, with the facility now re-opened to motorists. City of Lincoln Council, which operates the car park, was legally obliged to carry out repairs under the terms of its current lease and approved the £700,000 funding for the project earlier this year. Mark Wheater, strategic property manager for the council, said: “The improvement works which included concrete repairs and new deck coatings have significantly

Mansfield District Council’s Walkden multi-storey car park has been refurbished at a cost of £477,000.  Walkden Street is a reinforced concrete ‘waffle-pot’ structure built in 1964. It comprises six parking decks split over three levels. It originally provided 433 parking spaces, which included provision for disabled people, Shopmobility and motorcycle users. The car park was built over the top of retail premises. The shop units were vacated when the retailer moved

In January 2014 I was contacted by the architect Potter & Holmes, who were working on renovation plans for Q-Park's underground car park in Cavendish Square, London.  Westminster City Council’s planning application for the site stipulated that there needed to be an artistic visual element to the plan and I was asked to create imagery for elevations on the newly constructed pedestrian glass lift cube to be sited within the park at ground level. I was chosen to be the artist becau

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

The upper decks of most multi-storey car parks are left open to the elements, which means that ways must be found of preventing water and contaminants such as engine oil and road salts getting into the concrete typically used to create the parking decks. The concept of applying a waterproof coating to parking decks has been commonplace since multi-storeys started being built in significant numbers in the 1960s. The approach traditionally taken was to use mastic asphalt to provide a watertight co

The multi-storey car park serving the intu Derby shopping centre is undergoing a major refurbishment. Intu Derby, formerly known as The Eagle Centre and then Westfield Derby, is a large indoor shopping mall in the city centre. The centre contains around 200 stores, including Next, Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and Sainsbury’s, Showcase Cinema de Lux and restaurants.  USL StructureCare has been engaged to refurbish the main multi-storey car park, which sits above the centre and adja

The Merry Hill shopping centre in the West Midlands is served by almost 10,00 parking spaces. Some 900 of these spaces are provided in the Purple Car Park, which is currently undergoing a major refurbishment. USL StructureCare has been appointed by Merry Hill’s owner intu to carry out the renovation with the aim of having it back in operation in time for the Christmas shopping peak. The Purple Car Park is a three-level multi-storey built in the late 1980s. It is located adjacent to Merry

Two multi-storey car parks belonging to Exeter City Council now feature solar panels mounted on ‘carports’ on their roofs. The solar carports on the Mary Arches and John Lewis car parks became operational at the end of October. The initiative was delivered by Devon firm Sungift Energy (PR September). Rachel Sutton, Exeter’s lead councillor for city development, said: “It’s great that Exeter is leading the way in green technology. The solar panels will provide a gr

Britannia Parking is upgrading lighting across its estate of car parks. The project involves the supply, installation and maintenance of light emitting diode (LED) lighting technology. Britannia Parking operates multi-storey, underground and surface car parks, as well as temporary sites awaiting development. It leases a number of sites and also offers management services to retailers, institutions, local authorities, supermarket operators, hotel groups and leisure operators. It also provides pa

As a full-time professional photographer, I find myself in many odd places, always on the look out for the next commission. So, it wasn’t that surprising to be at Henley Royal Regatta, dressed in shorts and flip-flops, drinking a beer, to end up in a stand-up meeting, face to face with a brand manager from NCP. Hardly an ideal meeting but we did, however, spend an enjoyable time discussing the branding issues for the nation’s largest car park operator.  We talked about the car

The Brewer Street Car Park has long been recognised as an iconic building in the heart of London's Soho district, but now it's fast becoming Soho’s most dynamic creative space – home to a public programme of audio-visual shows, events and installations curated by The Vinyl Factory. Opened in 1929 as the Lexington Garage, the Art Deco building is an iconic NCP car park. In recent years the building has hosted a range of events, including London Fashion Week catwalk shows on its expa

NCP has been awarded a 10-year deal to manage and market parking at Grand Central, Birmingham’s new retail and transport hub, which opened in September. The car park is for shoppers and travellers using Birmingham’s Grand Central Station. NCP says the contract represents a new model for retail car parks as it has secured the site on a fixed-rate basis, with an undertaking that the focus for all parties will be on the quality of the service delivered over the profits that the car par

Q-Park UK hosted Sheffield’s first open air pop-up cinema on the roof of its Castlegate car park last month. The Village Screen showed The Full Monty, Back to the Future and Dirty Dancing over three nights from Thursday 17 to Saturday 19 September. The audience sat in deck chairs and listened to the movies via headphones. There were also food and drink stands.  Moviegoers could pre-book their evening’s parking online or through the Q-Park Rewards loyalty app. John Denton, hea

An end to free parking and provision of more spaces will enable a Norfolk market town to cope with rising pressure on spaces caused by an increase in commuter train services, a study commissioned by the town council has recommended. The rural town of Downham Market sits on the edge of the Fens between King’s Lynn, Norwich and Cambridge. Downham’s high street and town centre retail areas serve a large hinterland, meaning there is already high demand for parking from local residents a

Hornton Street is at the heart of civic life in the busy central London borough of Kensington & Chelsea, which is home to many world class museums, venues, department stores and events. The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) built the car park in the 1970s beneath the red brick library and conference centre, which stand adjacent to the 1905 Town Hall. It is also located close to the upmarket retail area of Kensington High Street, which is home to the Art Deco Barkers’ dep

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

A car park has opened in Nottingham that uses a new flexible form of solar panel technology developed by the Solar Cloth Company. The 67kWp system consists of 448 panels on a carport covering 40 bays.  Nottingham City Council is using the Power Parking system at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village, which has undergone a £16m redevelopment.  The solar energy system at the leisure and sports complex will produce 50MWh/year, saving 493 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year – equival

Drivers increasingly like to pay for their stays using bank cards as an alternative to cash. The growth in the use of phone-based parking systems does not mean pay stations will vanish. Indeed, David Lloyd, regional marketing manager for Parkeon, says card-reading terminals will remain a common site.  Pay stations are continually evolving as the banks and other payment service providers launch new formats, he says. Chip & PIN verification has become the norm for unattended payments, bu

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

Credit card company MasterCard has teamed up with parking equipment manufacturer Parkeon to launch a system that allows local businesses to offer coupons and offers via parking pay stations. The City Connector ‘hyperlocal’  couponing service was launched in the US city of Las Vegas in June. The solution is powered by MasterCard’s Enterprise Offers Platform, which turns traditional parking meters into connected devices through which local authorities and businesses can en

Solar panels on frames are being installed on the roof deck of a multi-storey car park in Exeter. The use of the carport-style structures means vehicles can still use the top deck of the Mary Arches site. Exeter City Council has awarded the contract to local company SunGift, a specialist in solar energy solutions, following a competitive tender that attracted regional and national bidders. The frames will hold over 540 solar panels, which will generate 285,227kWh per year, saving around 150 to

A multi-storey car park featuring a green wall has been built at National Grid’s Warwick headquarters. The 330-space staff parking facility at Warwick Technology Park features a wall covered with greenery.  The green wall is intended to help the National Grid achieve its sustainability goals by improving the surrounding atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide, filtering out pollutants from water run-off and providing a habitat for wildlife. The car park was designed by architects One

APCOA Parking (UK) has set up a new off-site car park to offer a budget-priced service for travellers using Aberdeen International Airport. APCOA has been granted a 10-year lease on the site by the airport. The car park is being operated under the Park and Depart banner, a brand owned by the airport.  Aberdeen Airport Park and Depart will provide parking for almost 850 cars when complete. The surface car park is opening in two stages: A 513-space section was opened on 1 July and a further

Brisbane Airport’s new multi-storey car park was voted the best in Australia last month. The parking structure’s façade features a 5,000m2 artwork called Turbulent Line, which is inspired by the course of the River Brisbane. Designed by artist Ned Kahn, Turbulent Line comprises 120,000 hinged aluminium panels that sway in the wind, creating a ripple effect that emulates water. Parking Australia, the country’s association, revealed the winners of the 2015 Parking Indust

What is your “parking personality”? You can discover this by playing an online quiz developed by the British Parking Association as a way of raising awareness of Park Mark, the brand of the Safer Parking Scheme.  Players drive down a high street in a shiny sports car. They have to answer questions such as how they choose where to park, how they prefer to pay and what they would do if the machine did not accept cash. They then drive into a multi-storey and are faced with the opt

Bournemouth Borough Council’s Avenue Road car park has been awarded a two-year safer parking award. The 895-space barrier controlled car park, which is run by APCOA Parking (UK), received the Park Mark award after Dorset Police recorded no vehicle crime at the MSCP over past 12 months. John Green, Bournemouth-based crime prevention officer and Park Mark assessor, reported that Avenue Road MSCP is a good example of a well-managed facility designed and built to incorporate security to a hi

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

A disused airport in Kent will be used as a temporary lorry park to free up the M20 in Kent when Operation Stack is in operation, the Department for Transport has announced. An agreement has been reached with the owners of Manston Airfield in East Kent to enable Kent County Council, Highways England and Kent Police to temporarily use the airfield to help reduce pressure on the M20 during Operation Stack. The introduction of Manston Airfield into Operation Stack will provide short-term addition

Three British parking projects are competing for recognition in the European Parking Awards, with the winners to be announced in Berlin on 23 September. Two refurbishment schemes are going head-to-head in the ‘Renovated parking structure category’. The remodelling of Bedford Borough Council’s Allhallows multi-storey by Makers Construction was named Best Refurbishment at this year’s British Parking Awards. The reinvention of Westminster City Council’s underground c

Car parks decorated with paintings of penguins, clad in stained glass and showcasing ruined cottages have been recognised at a North American awards ceremony. The International Parking Institute (IPI) revealed the winners of its annual competition at its conference and expo, which was held in Las Vegas in June. The awards recognise best practice in the design and refurbishment of garages (as multi-storey car parks are known in the US and Canada), as well as innovative and environmentally friendl

Like many airports, Heathrow can resemble a massive car park with runways attached. There is no doubting that public parking spaces the airport operates make a substantial contribution to its revenues - £52m in the first six months of this year, according to the latest report from the airport’s operating company, Heathrow (SP) Ltd. The airport’s 23,000 on-site parking spaces provide business travellers and tourists with a range of services in a variety of surface and multi-sto

A surveyor from Derby has set up a commercial property company focussing exclusively on the car parking sector. Richard Ofield has launched Park Consult to advise surveyors, landowners, developers and businesses throughout the UK. Ofield has over 15 years of experience working in the commercial property market. He has held asset management and business development roles at Clowes Developments, Henry Boot Developments and Excel Parking Services. “Car parks are a part of most people’

NCP is sponsoring a project that turns the centre of Manchester into a garden during the summer. The parking operator has partnered with CityCo and Manchester Business Improvement District to back the annual Dig the City festival, which starts on 31 July. Dig the City will see the centre of Manchester burst into bloom for seven days as 30 show gardens and installations spring up across the retail centre.  This year’s theme is “Interact and Innovate”. In previous years

Total Car Parks will be closing its Oxford Road surface car park in Manchester on 31 July after failing to get an extension on planning permission to use the city centre site. The BBC vacated the location in 2011 and the site has been used for parking since early 2013. Total Car Parks had submitted a planning application to allow for the continued operation of the existing 563-space car park until 1 January 2016.  A retrospective 12-month planning application for this use was approved in

Parking payment systems manufacturer Parkeon is supporting Chloe Stoneman, a young athlete who is part of the GB underwater hockey team competing in the CMAS World Championships in Spain in August. Underwater hockey is an amateur sport with no central funding. This means Plymouth-based Chloe Stoneman, 16, needs to raise £1,500 to cover match fees, kit and travel expenses.  Parkeon, whose UK headquarters are based in Plymouth, has donated £500 to the teenager. “I have bee

Keith Hanshaw has been appointed as managing director of Project Centre, NSL’s technical design consultancy. Hanshaw joined Project Centre in November 2014 as regional director. He was previously chief officer at the London Borough of Waltham Forest, where he was responsible for public realm schemes. His 25-year career in local government also saw him work for Medway Councils and the London boroughs of Camden and Newham. Hanshaw said: “I’m very much looking forward to taking

After buying their home, the biggest investment most people will make is in their car. After running a household, finding a place to park the car is often the biggest headache for many residents. There is a perception among many homeowners, housebuilders and politicians that there are not enough parking spaces on residential developments. However, evidence has been collected and presented by a research project that indicates that on suburban housing estates, at least, there is, in fact, a surplu

There are parts of the world where people have always lived without cars because no road access is possible or none has been provided. Some of these are historic areas or entire settlements, like Venice. In the 1990s, beginning in Germany and Austria, another movement with utopian ideals began to promote the idea of ‘carfree’ new developments. Several of these have been built across various European countries, and were the original reason for my European travels. In Britain the term

Industrial safety barrier manufacturer A-SAFE has been listed in the Sunday Times BT Business SME Export Track 100 league table. The list ranks Britain’s fastest-growing small and medium-sized companies for overseas sales.  A-SAFE was ranked at 33rd after demonstrating export growth of 71% over the last two years. The Yorkshire-based company had total international sales of £6.4m in 2014. A-SAFE produces an alternative to traditional steel barriers for car parks. The company s

A multi-storey storey car park in Bournemouth is in the running for a national design award having won regional recognition.  The Madeira Road development, which comprises student accommodation and a public car park, was named South West Best Public Service Building in the LABC (Local Authority Building Control) Building Excellence Awards on 12 June. The car park will be put forward for the national LABC competition in November. The multi-storey was built as part of a partnership between

Stirling Lloyd, manufacturer of the Decseal waterproofing system for car parks, has appointed Anne Tattersall as its marketing director. She will be tasked with refreshing the company’s marketing strategy and driving sales growth at home and in export markets. Tattersall joins from AkzoNobel where she worked for 12 years, the last three as marketing director for professional brands.  She was responsible for the Dulux Trade’s professional paint brand in the commercial contracto

An amateur gardener has seen his idea for a front garden design that combines plantings with a parking space created at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Nurse Sean Murray took top prize in BBC2’s The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge. His idea ties in with a campaign by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to showcase ways to incorporate plants, flowers and grass alongside cars in front gardens.  RHS estimates that more than seven million front gardens in the UK contain concrete

Past performance is a poor indicator of the future. This is a warning usually written in small print on adverts for financial services. It is also something that parking professionals would be well advised to bear in mind. As I approach the age of 60, I have spent half my life in parking. Looking back at what was probably ‘The Golden Age of Parking’ I remember a time (not so long ago) when there was a general shortage of parking spaces and the operators’ main preoccupation was

Q-Park’s newest multi-storey car park is a core element of the £80m First Street business and cultural hub development in central Manchester.  The car park is located adjacent to HOME, a £25m arts centre that is the new home for the Cornerhouse cinema and Library Theatre Company.  Q-Park First Street provides 700 spaces to business and casual parkers. The company now operates a portfolio of six sites in Q-Park Manchester. The car park was designed by Ian Simpson Ar

Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) has created a video that explains the benefits of its Disabled Parking Award (DPA) scheme. The video was shown by DMUK’s director of policy and campaigns Helen Dolphin at last month’s Parking & Property conference and can be seen on YouTube. The film was made at NCP's Norwich International Airport car park - the operator has been an early adopter of the DPA. The DPA was launched in 2014 with the aim of improving parking for disabled people across the

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

Shopping centre operator Intu has submitted a detailed planning application for the transformation of the Broadmarsh shopping centre to Nottingham City Council. Into wants to create a new southern gateway from Nottingham’s mainline station. There will be improved pedestrian routes through the shopping centre and surrounding streets. The proposals form part of a £150m investment by Intu and the council which includes the refurbishment of the Broadmarsh multi-storey car park and bus

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

Judging by the complaints, sackings and resignations, the presenters of Top Gear are a provocative bunch, both on and off camera. While it seems likely that Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May won’t be returning to the BBC motoring show, it is not yet clear what is happening to the team’s fourth member, The Stig. If the silent but speedy driver disappears from the screen he seems to have a career ahead of him as parking concierge. Parking Review has spotted The Stig (or someone who v

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

The Safer Parking Scheme has been embraced by NCP. Britain’s largest parking operator regards the process of attaining Park Marks as helpful for benchmarking its work to make its sites feel safer and thus more customer friendly.  The majority of the company’s car parks have now achieved Park Mark status, reports Rebecca Keight, head of risk management at NCP. “The company has been working with the Park Mark scheme for ten years now and there are now 389 car parks across t

Dundee City Council was an early adopter of the Safer Parking Scheme, joining in 2005. This was after the scheme was re-launched, having formerly been the Secured Car Park Award. Nine of Dundee’s car parks were awarded the Park Mark in 2006 and the council has increased this tally to 11 since. The council’s parking team manages 33 car parks – half are fee paying in the centre, the remainder are on the outskirts and free. The oldest, in Bell Street, was built in the 1970s. The

The Park Mark logo now appears on over 5,000 car parks across the UK, signalling to drivers that the facility displaying its distinctive ‘tick’ design are designed and operated in a manner approved by the Safer Parking Scheme. The Safer Parking Scheme is an initiative of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) that has been managed for over a decade by the British Parking Association (BPA) from its head offices in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. The scheme succeeded the origina

A design competition is underway for the refurbishment and reinvention of Preston’s iconic bus station as a youth centre. Lancashire County Council has appointed the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to administer the competition.  The bus station and car park, which was completed in 1969, was reprieved when architecture minister Ed Vaizey listed it in 2013 after a long campaign to save it from demolition. Last year Lancashire unveiled a £23m plan to transform the s

The 62nd edition of London Fashion Week will take place in a car park in the heart of Soho.  NCP’s Art Deco Brewer Street multi-storey will host the British Fashion Council (BFC) event in September. Brewer Street’s central London location fulfils BFC’s goal of hosting LFW in a West End space close to major retail spaces.  Two floors of Brewer Street Car Park will host catwalk shows in the BFC Show Space and the Designer Showrooms, with over 100 designers exhibiting t

Makers Construction decided it was safer to temporarily remove a footbridge spanning a busy Northamptonshire road rather than repair it in situ. Standens Barn Bridge – which provides a pedestrian link between Weston Favell shopping centre, its car park and an adjacent residential area – was removed in one piece on the night of 25 March. Since its construction in 1975, the footbridge has provided a 24-hour passage over the A4500 Wellingborough Road dual carriageway to a 24-hour Tesco

With 52 floors providing over 200 apartments 181-metre high One St George Wharf in London is one of the tallest residential towers in Europe. The development, overlooking the River Thames at Vauxhall, is served by a basement car park with space for 200 cars across two levels.  Developer St George wanted the car park to have an attractive aesthetic that reflected the project’s luxury status. The developer’s in-house project design team and contractor Makers Construction worked w

USL StructureCare has upgraded the multi-storey car park serving the Middleton shopping centre in Greater Manchester. The Middleton Centre, which is located north of Manchester, is managed by CBRE. Its anchor tenants include Wilkinsons, WH Smith and Boots. Waterproofing on the 378-space car park’s exposed decks had begun to deteriorate and needed replacing. Following a competitive tender process, USL StructureCare was asked to ‘value engineer’ its proposals, the objective bei

Heathrow Terminal 2’s Short Stay multi-storey provides parking for 1,500 vehicles. The car park was named Best New Car Park at the British Parking Awards 2015 in recognition of its driver-friendly layout, new technology and attention to detail. Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL) wanted the car park built to exacting margins, and this posed challenges for contractors. For example, the car park’s design called for a floor depth of just 150mm comprising a 60mm deep slab with 90mm structural to

Makers Construction’s apprentice scheme were a winner at the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Committed to Excellence in the East Midlands Awards, which were held at the Belfry in Nottingham last month. The refurbishment specialist is funding a five-year programme that mixes on-the-job learning, higher education at Walsall College and personal mentoring. Kevin Bradley, chair of the CIOB judging panel, said: “Makers Construction’s apprenticeship scheme is a model for the

Maximum parking limits should be scrapped for new developments in outer London, says a new report from GLA Conservative Assembly member Steve O’Connell. He says that the limits should be removed from the London Plan, the Mayor’s planning document, with outer London boroughs given the power to set their own levels.  O’Connell also urged Transport for London to “refrain” from reducing parking levels in outer London developments as pre-planning and planning stage

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

Parking can be a challenging profession, never more so than for those on the front line, who engage with drivers, customers, and the general public as part of their day to day activities; not to mention doing all this whilst coping with the peculiarities of our ever changing British weather. NCP’s customer service assistants (CSAs) are the first point of contact for customers; providing assistance, advice, enforcement and community engagement, as well as being the public ‘face’

The mission of the British Parking Association Structures and Asset Management Special Interest Group (SAMSIG) is to make sure car parks remain safe structures. SAMSIG was formed in 2009 to represent the views of members interested in parking structures.  The group looks to improve the industry and to push quality standards up. In recent years it has been a vocal champion for ideas such as ‘Life Care Plans’ and proper winter maintenance for car parks. “Advocacy is a poli

Britain’s largest parking operator NCP is upgrading lighting across its estate, replacing old light fittings with 66,000 energy efficient LED units. Operating over 150,000 parking spaces across 500 sites means NCP clocks up a significant energy bill simply powering the lighting across its estate. But wanting to reduce its energy bills was only part of the story when NCP decided to rethink its lighting strategy, with sustainability uppermost in its mind. The company’s key objectives w

Portsmouth Park & Ride acts as a gateway to the city, and as means of reducing congestion. The 663-space surface facility opened on 5 April 2014 and operates seven days a week. The P&R has exceeded usage estimates and saw 77,000 cars park there in the first eight months. The site is situated directly off Junction 1 of the M275 to the north of the western corridor into Portsmouth, one of only three roads into the city. The P&R serves The Hard Interchange, which is the stop for Gunwha

Heathrow Terminal 2’s massive car park has over 1,500 parking spaces and its control room now looks after more than 23,000 parking spaces across the airport. Terminal 2 was opened in June 2014. Located right next to terminals 1 and 3, the new £2.5 billion Terminal 2 building – known as The Queen’s Terminal – is in the heart of the airport. It offers an array of shops, restaurants and a very high specification car park. Built adjacent to the terminal, the 1,500-space

Russell Simmons is emerging as one of Britain’s leading experts on the maintenance and refurbishment of car parks. Simmons was named Young Parking Professional of the Year in 2013, and was actually nominated in that category again this year. However, the jury decided to consider him in the Parking Person of the Year category.  The award reflects the impact he has made on raising awareness of the need for proper Life Care Plans for car parks, both through his work with Pyle Car Park C

Chris Whapples has worked in the parking sector for over 40 years, during which time he has become one of the leading experts in the design of car parks and an advocate of their proper maintenance and upkeep. A long-serving member of the British Parking Awards jury, he was completely unaware that he had even been nominated until the day of the awards. Over the years, he has worked with specialist parking consultancies such as the Hill Cannon Partnership and, currently, Pyle Car Park Consultants

Music and laughter are a hallmark of the British Parking Awards, which celebrate innovation and achievement in this often beleaguered service sector. The 2015 awards event was no exception. Over 500 people attended the gala lunch, which took place at the Lancaster London. The event, which is the highlight of the parking social calendar, started with a reception accompanied by jazz trio Silk Street, followed by a 4-star lunch. This year’s ceremony was hosted by Ade Adepitan, the TV travel

A new car park has been opened at Heathrow to meet demand for spaces from business travellers, who now make up a third of all journeys from the airport’s Terminal 5. The 700-space car park offers secure, monitored on-airport parking between Terminal 5’s Long Stay and Pod parking sites – the latter is linked to the terminal by automated vehicles.  The site is designed to meet a growing demand for business parking. The 10 million business travellers who use Heathrow represe

Work has begun to enhance security and improve the customer experience at Birmingham Airparks. Self-service kiosks are being installed to supplement existing manned check-in desks to reduce queuing at peak times. Accessibility is also being improved for customers with disabilities. The £350,000 programme will enhance the car park’s security through new fencing and improved CCTV.  Airparks staff will receive improved welfare facilities with new meeting rooms. Oliver Ashford,

Designs for a new railway station in Thanet with links to London’s Stratford International include a 300-space car park. Over the past two months residents and local businesses have been asked for their views on the facilities, potential impacts and benefits of the proposed parkway.  The £14m project will deliver two-platform station, with parking and an access road connecting it to the A256 and A299 at the Sevenscore roundabout. Passengers would be able to reach London Stratfo

Parkeon has developed a smartphone app that integrates pay-on-foot parking with access to online payments. Parkeon will be demonstrating how its mobile phone parking app Whoosh! Now works with its Varioflex pay-on-foot system. This will enable motorists to pay for off-street parking charges remotely via their smartphones. “What this means is that motorists will take a ticket on arrival at the entry terminal, go shopping and then when they are about to return to their vehicles, call up the

April sees the parking, traffic and highways sectors converge on the NEC in Birmingham for the Parkex and Traffex exhibitions. The Parkex strand, which is free to attend, will feature 120 suppliers showcasing parking products, services and technology.  Now in its 17th year, Parkex is organised by Brintex on behalf of the British Parking Association (BPA). This year Parkex runs alongside Traffex, which is also free to attend. Traffex features around 400 exhibitors from the integrated world

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

APCOA Parking (UK)’s SkyDome multi-storey car park in Coventry has been awarded a Park Mark under the Safer Parking Scheme. The car park on Croft Road offers 780 parking spaces across 18 levels. The Park Mark recognises improvements such as investment in a new CCTV system and the repainting of the stairwells. The SkyDome’s parking attendants were considered to be well-drilled in health & safety and security operations, and demonstrated competencies in customer care and informat

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 average size of parking bays needs to increase to match the increasing width of cars, says Harrison Woods, managing director of online parking market YourParkingSpace. Woods has proposed the introduction of a ‘SizeMark’, a new parking industry standard designed to ensure that car parking spaces are large enough to accommodate modern motor vehicles. Woods says research shows that while parking spaces have remained approximately the same size over the last 60 years, some vehicle m

A new parking deck at the Four Oaks railway station will be built for West Midlands integrated transport authority Centro by design & build contractor Bourne Parking. The Four Oaks south car park currently has 175 spaces.  The new single-storey deck will be built on part of the surface site, increasing its capacity by 50 parking spaces. Bourne Parking will erect the deck, a Cycle Hub shelter and vehicular access gate. The car park features lighting, CCTV and emergency help-points. Con

Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council is replacing ageing pay & display machines with new terminals. The Cumbrian local authority installed 22 mains-powered, coin-only Parkeon Strada Transfer machines. “Motorists simply want to put their money into the terminals and get a ticket without any hassle or problems,” said Caren Hindle, parking services manager at Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council. “As a result of our recent investment in new terminals, the parking operation is work

A campaign has been launched to prevent the view from a south London car park being blocked by future tower block developments. An online petition is urging the London Borough of Southwark not to allow any high-rise buildings adjacent to the multi-storey car park in Peckham. During the spring and summer the car park’s upper floors host the Bold Tendencies art exhibitions and Multi-Story Orchestra music events, while the roof deck is a pop-up café-bar called Frank’s. The coun

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

Changes in shoppers’ behaviour is leading retailers to close scores of stores, mothball newly built locations and not pursue the development of planned sites. Last month Tesco announced that it would close 43 unprofitable stores. In total, 18 Express, 12 Metro, seven superstores and six Homeplus stores are shutting their doors. Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis said the decision to close the stores was "exceptionally difficult". "Our priority is to explain what this announcement means for

Parking facilities feature in plans to improve visitor numbers to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct World Heritage Site in the Trevor Basin near Wrexham, Wales. Parking charges could also fund the changes. The cast iron viaduct was built by Thomas Telford between 1796 and 1805. Its 19 piers and 18 arches carry the Llangollen Canal. Visitor numbers have increased year on year since the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was awarded World Heritage status in 2009. However, the average length of time visitors stay is

Park & ride in the West Midlands are being expanded as part of the Access to Growth programme, funded by the passenger transport executive Centro and the Department for Transport (DfT). The works comprise extensions to car parks at Acocks Green, Rowley Regis, Kings Norton and Stourbridge Junction, as well as a new parking deck at Four Oaks. The project includes the expansion of CCTV and security systems as well as the introduction of energy efficient lighting. At Rowley Regis on the Birmi

A new truck stop and lorry park at Exelby Services at Coneygarth, on the A1 motorway in Yorkshire, is now operational.  The £4.4m facility built by Clugston Construction replaces the Londonderry Garage on the site.  The amenity provides parking for up to 80 lorries and has re-fuelling facilities for HGVs and LGVs. Other features include a coffee and sandwich bar and a fully stocked mini market.  Showers and washrooms are also available on-site for lorry drivers who choose

When communities secretary Eric Pickles abolished Labour’s (already weakened) national parking standards in 2011, he cloaked his announcement in the language of localism: “We’re getting out of the way and it’s up to councils to set the right parking policy for their area.” But, of course, politicians only “get out of the way” when they believe this will move things in their preferred direction. Three years later, the Coalition’s intellectual heavyw

Photographers will often go to extraordinary lengths to get the perfect shot. This may entail sitting very still for hours, even days, to capture an image of if a rare animal, bird of prey, or, if you’re a paparazzi, some C-list celebrity.  At the other extreme, war and extreme sports photographers will put their lives on the line to capture the sense of peril and life hanging in the balance.  When it comes to photographing car parks one such photographer is Phil Burrowes of Av

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. Now

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.

A 440-space multi-storey car park forms part of a £150m scheme plan to regenerate Guildford’s railway station. The plans have been submitted to the borough by Solum Regeneration. This is the seventh project to be promoted by Solum Regeneration, a £500m joint venture established in 2008 between Network Rail and Kier Property to bring private investment into the rail network.  Solum generates funds from the development of under-used railway land and has completed projects a

English Cities Fund (ECf) and National Car Parks (NCP) have launched a £12m multi-storey car park for the New Bailey scheme in Salford, Greater Manchester. The 620-space car park, which opened on 9 December, was funded by Legal & General and has been let to NCP on a 35-year lease.  The car park is located adjacent to Salford Central railway station and sits alongside ECf’s One New Bailey office development, which features a 143-bed Premier Inn hotel that opened in September

The City of York is encouraging motorists using its park & ride sites to complete their journeys into the city centre by bike rather than bus. The Park & Pedal initiative is run by the council’s iTravel York with aim of providing a way to quickly and easily commute or shop whilst at the same time to encouraging physical activity.  Commuters can utilise the scheme in various ways: they can drive to a P&R site, park for free and complete the rest of the journey in to the ce

City of York Council has invested in park & ride as a means of reducing traffic congestion and pollution in its historic city centre over the past decade. More than four million trips were made on park & ride services in 2013. The city is now served by six P&R sites, with two new locations opening in June 2014. These provide a total of 4,770 parking spaces.  iTravel Park & ride is a key element of the city council’s iTravel initiative, which encourages people to mode

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

The Multi-Story Orchestra has been making a name for itself as an innovative musical experience. Led by Kate Whitley and Chris Stark, the orchestra puts on events in many unusual venues, with the largely disused Peckham Multi-Storey in south London serving as its base. The orchestra has now been recognised in Classic FM’s round-up of the best moments of 2014. The magazine said: “The Multi-Story Orchestra is a relatively new arrival to the classical music scene, and they are one of t

APCOA Parking (UK) staff fronted a council initiative to increase the number of visits to St Helens town centre. Throughout December, APCOA’s civil enforcement officers promoted St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council’s free Saturday parking offer in the run up to Christmas. The concession, which was launched in the Merseyside town in August 2014, meant that drivers could park at any one of the 15 council-owned ground-level and multi-storey car parks. The free parking is available a

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

Lancashire County Council has unveiled a £23m plan to transform Preston’s listed Bus Station and Car Park, including leisure facilities for young people.   The 1,100-space car park above the bus station will be repaired. Lancashire is currently appointing architects and contractors. Estimates put the cost of the repairs at £6.4m, improvements to the apron at £2m, and a further £1.5m to be spent on highway improvements.  Work could begin next October, sub

Q-Park has taken over management of the Embankment car park in Manchester, renaming it Deansgate North. It opened the revamped 227-space facility on 10 November, having secured a 10-year lease from Network Rail.  Working in association with Ask Property Development, Q-Park has constructed a new surface car park as part of the re-development project for the Greengate regeneration scheme. Greengate will include two office blocks and a multi-storey car park, which will be run by Q-Park in 201

As anyone who has been in the same job for 25 years will readily admit, silver jubilees trigger mixed emotions. In my case, I have celebrated a quarter of a century working at Euro Car Parks (ECP). On the one hand, 25 years does feel like a very long time, yet on the other, it seems to have gone by in a flash. I know there are people out there who will identify with this, including the editor of Parking Review! I remember the ‘old days’ at ECP when we operated car parks with parking

My wife keeps telling me it’s time to call it a day and to embrace retirement by doing all those things she has planned for me to do. However, all her best laid plans were postponed in June 2013 when Unity Recruitment called to see if I was interested in a parking management role at the London Borough of Croydon.  After a 10-year absence I found myself back at the authority working in Parking Services as enforcement and infrastructure manager, responsible for enforcement on and off-s

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

Imagine a world full of cars but with no city centre car parks. A world where every road has its own unique parking restrictions, but where there is no driver perplexity and no need for either enforcement or the confusing lines and signs currently cluttering up our streets. Imagine a world with no speeding vehicles and no speed cameras. Imagine a world with no traffic accidents. Imagine a world that has no place for the parking industry as we know it. This is, depending on your viewpoint, eithe

Road surface temperatures (RSTs) can be different to air temperatures. With this in mind, the Met Office can provide site specific, road surface forecasts to enable gritting contractors to identify the right time to grit their customers’ premises.  There are many factors that affect how low temperatures fall overnight. Indeed, the temperature of the air, road, grass and even your car windscreen can be different, even in the same location.  The physical properties of the road su

LockChip is a spray-applied application designed to allow roads to be reopened to traffic in as little as an hour. Produced by the Bitchumen Group, LockChip is a polymer-modified bitumen emulsion that is applied to the new dressing by using the conventional spray tankers. The LockChip emulsion coats the surface of the microtexture and macrotexture to lock in loose chips and seal it to retard against the onset of the weathering process, which helps to minimise the risk of early failure especiall

The rooftop of a car park in Peckham has been rated one of the coolest places to drink by the Observer Food Monthly Magazine Awards. Frank’s Café and Bar serves wine, beer cocktails and a range of food and provides panoramic views of London including the O2 Arena, Big Ben, the London Eye and Crystal Palace. Originally designed by architecture students Lettice Drake and Paloma Gormley as a temporary pop-up, Frank’s is now a popular haunt in increasingly trendy Peckham. The l

The lack of a dedicated car park at the soon-to-open new arts centre in Bangor, North Wales, has been provoked complaints from councillors at Gwynedd Council. The £45m Pontio theatre and arts centre is built on a hill beneath Bangor University and next to a busy road, but will not have its own car park, despite it having a 450-seat theatre, 120-seat studio, cinema, amphitheatre, dining area and bars.  Visitors to the complex will either have to park at Bangor University’s main

A new surfacing system from Bituchem has been designed to combine the durability of asphalt with a natural looking finish.  Natratex is a clear binding agent which can be used to bond aggregates used to create both vehicular areas and pedestrian paths. The manufacturer says the system can be used for new construction, overlays or regeneration projects. The company says Natratex has already been used on car parks, residential roads and driveways, pavements, cycle paths and playgrounds.&nbs

The Merseyway Shopping Centre car park in Stockport, Greater Manchester, has received a £1.84m facelift. The improvements were jointly funded by Stockport Metropolitan borough Council, landlord UK Asset Resolution and Merseyway’s management. Construction Partnership UK carried out the upgrade, which included concrete repairs, improvements to access points, lifts and stairs, bridge deck joints, barriers, new lighting and signage. CCTV cameras, supplied by Baydale Control Systems, hav

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

The city centre site of the former Birmingham Post & Mail newspaper offices, demolished in 2005, is being converted into a £20m underground car park and mixed-use development. The B4 project is being undertaken by Chatham Billingham Investments and designer Associated Architects. Main contractor Balfour Beatty is nearing the end of the first phase, which involves creating the six-level, 800-space car park and a two-storey mixed-use podium. The car park and podium will eventually form

Car park ramps decks and ramps have been repaired as part of a £1m project to combat concrete deterioration at the Pyramids shopping centre in Birkenhead.  Concrete repairs have also been carried out on fire escapes, parapet walls lintels and columns. The works were carried out by specialist contractor Grade 2, which used repair materials manufacturer Sika, which met the requirements of EN 1504, the European Standard for the protection and repair of reinforced concrete. Using a com

A multi-storey car park has been built for pharmaceutical company Lonza in Slough. German contractor Huber Car Park Systems built the staff car park.  Sub-contractor Cemplas waterproofed the concrete decks using two systems produced by Tremco Illbruck. A total of 1,300m2 of Tremco CP Urethane System was installed across the top deck, along with a further 5,200m2 of the MMA internal system for the lower levels.  The Lonza staff car park decks were finished in a light grey colour for t

A 1960s multi-storey in the centre of Bedford has been completely refurbished as part of the new gateway to the town centre. The Allhallows car park was fully reopened to the public over the Easter weekend in April this year following a 52 week programme. It has been revamped by Makers Construction for Bedford Borough Council.  Graeme Middleton, Makers’ business development manager, said combined cost of the car park refurbishment alongside the ongoing new build of Bedford Bus Statio

Guildford Borough Council has undertaken a major overhaul of its Farnham Road car park, a multi-storey located adjacent to both the railway station and the Surrey town’s main shopping area. Both long-term commuter parking and short-term users visiting the town centre use the 917-space facility. The car park, which opened in the late 1980s, is of steel framed construction, with composite concrete floor slabs (pre-cast, probably pre-stressed planks, with a reinforced concrete topping) and

A parking deck serving a private residential development in St John’s Wood, north-west London has been re-waterproofed. Cavendish House is located on Wellington Road that runs alongside Lord’s Cricket Ground. The property features an asphalt covered parking deck and a number of lock-up garages. Urbanworthy Property Manage-ment, which looks after the apartment building and adjoining properties, appointed contractor Cemplas to carry out the works. Tremco’s MMA Rapid Cure Flexi

A car park has been built as a part of West Yorkshire Police’s new £34m divisional headquarters in Leeds. With almost 400 spaces, the two-deck car park provides space for the force’s operational vehicles as well as for staff and visitors. Main contractor Interserve built the headquarters on a site on Elland Road, opposite Leeds United’s football ground, as a Private Finance Initiative (PFI).  The car park was structurally protected using Stirling Lloyd’s dual

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

An agreement has finally been reached on proposals to rebuild part of the troubled Castlepoint shopping centre in Bournemouth, including its car park, after nearly a decade of on-off negotiations.  The shopping centre opened in 2003 but its two-level underground 3,000-space car park developed structural problems which emerged as the concrete floor and support columns developed cracks. Temporary props were installed to help support the structure (PR January 2006).  Standard Life Inves

North Yorkshire County Council has installed 19 new pay & display terminals in Northallerton High Street. The solar-powered Parkeon Strada Transfer terminals will be connected to the cloud-based Parkfolio management system, enabling the local authority to monitor the terminals remotely. Parkfolio generates alerts and provides access to financial information on each individual terminal.  The council has used Strada Transfer terminals in nearby off-street car parks within Hambleton Dist

Parking engineers from the UK have developed an integrated payment system that enables public transport users in Perth, Australia to pay for car parking using their SmartRider smartcards. The new system was developed by a team at Parkeon working in partnership with the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia. It is now in operation at Transperth train stations, with 128 SmartParker meters having been installed. Parkeon said the machines are processing more than 15,000 transactions per d

A new car park forms part of proposals for the biggest transformation of Cardiff rail station since it was built in the middle of the 19th century.  The plans unveiled by Network Rail include an extended glass-fronted station concourse, which will feature new retail space and a mezzanine floor topped by a wave effect roof. A new multi-storey car park and office space will be built at the rear of the station. The new look station forms part of wider plans to revamp the city centre. The tra

A new multi-storey car park at Bristol Parkway was opened by transport minister Baroness Kramer last month. The £13m structure has added 710 new spaces to the First Great Western operated station. The station’s parking capacity is now around 1,800 spaces. Before the work, the site was regularly full and First Great Western expects Bristol Parkway to become much busier once the Great Western mainline is electrified. Baroness Kramer said: “The work at Bristol Parkway is a grea

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

Housing is becoming a major problem in cities around the world. The lack of new housing is forcing up the cost of owning or renting properties, meaning people are having to choose between living in over-priced accommodation or commuting from suburbs.  One solution to the housing crisis may lie in building on under-utilised car parks.  The US urbanist Eran Ben-Joseph, author of the book Re-Thinking a Lot, estimates that at least a third of the space in American cities is dedicated to p

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

The shortage of parking spaces in New York is leading developers to sell garage spaces at prices that cost more per square foot than the luxury apartments they serve. Ten underground spaces being built as part of a development in the upmarket SoHo area of Lower Manhattan are each being sold for a cool $1m (£620,000). And that million bucks only secures a 99-year lease. The 42 Crosby Street development in the fashionable SoHo district of Lower Manhattan is offering 10 underground parking

Northwick Park Hospital has been awarded a Park Mark safer parking award by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). The hospital’s 512-space four-level multi-storey car park is located on the borders of Wembley and Harrow in north-west London. The car park is managed for North-West NHS Trust by APCOA Parking (UK). The car park operates around the clock. Public parking is controlled by pay & display on three levels while staff permit parking is provided on the upper floor.

APCOA Parking (UK) has rebranded its Bryanston Street car park in London as the Oxford Street (West) car park. The multi-storey is located near Marble Arch. APCOA says the site is “one of London’s hidden gems” and the new name makes its proximity to the shopping area clearer. The company is also offering an early bird deal to drivers who park between 5am and 8am.

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

The Jervis Street car park in central Dublin has become the first Irish acquisition of Dutch investment company Bouwfonds.  APCOA Parking Ireland has been awarded a 15-year parking management services’ contract to run the 267-space multi-storey, located close to one of Dublin’s busiest shopping thoroughfares. Bouwfonds European Real Estate Parking Fund ll, part of Bouwfonds Investment Management (IM), has bought the car park as part of a move to increase its investment portfol

A 600-space multi-storey car park has been built as part of the Southwater regeneration project in Telford, Shropshire. The £250m regeneration scheme is a partnership between Telford & Wrekin Council, Southwater Event Group, private sector investors and is part-funded by the Homes & Communities Agency.  The car park was designed by Associated Architects of Birmingham and built by construction company Morgan Sindall. Phase one of the scheme saw the opening of an 11-screen IMAX

Construction work has started on Middlesbrough’s £18m sports hub. The development includes a 1,100-space car park for The James Cook University Hospital. The sports village at Prissick will feature a new athletics track, fitness gym, multi-functional sport and performance spaces and external flood-lit pitches. Phase Two of the scheme will include a £1m velodrome, an Olympic-length cycle track being developed in partnership with British Cycling. The existing cycling circuit, w

An 800-space multi-storey features in plans for the £150m Victoria Gate development in Leeds. The project will replace the former Leeds police headquarters at Millgarth police station. The station, bought by Leeds City Council, will make way for the Hammerson Property Developers shopping centre consisting of a John Lewis anchor store, a shopping arcade with 30 stores and shops and will be served by a five-deck multi–storey car park.  The design of the car park by Acme Architec

Birmingham City Council has approved plans for a £400m development in the city centre. The former 1960s Central studios site, off Broad Street and Centenary Square, is to be transformed into an eight-storey office block, shops and a 2,500-space underground car park. The development of the 9.2-acre (3.7-hectare) site called Arena Central, created by design practice Gillespies, would also include a hotel, apartments and public spaces. A disused 1970s multi-storey car park and a Holiday In

An off-airport holiday booking service opened at Belfast International Airport on 19 June. The Park and Fly operation has been set up on a former long-stay car park opposite the main entrance to the airport. Deirdre Graffin, the airport’s commercial services manager, said the Park and Fly service has been created in response to demand for a low-cost option – parking rates start at £3 a day. 

What do you do with an old multi-storey car park? Demolish it and replace it with something else would seem to be the obvious answer. However, how about using these austere but capacious structures as spaces within which emerging artists and entrepreneurs can explore new performance and business models. This has been the fate of the long unused Rye Lane car park in Peckham, south London, which has become home to ‘pop-up’ exhibitions, film screenings, music recitals and even a rooftop

Sevenoaks District Council is set to increase parking capacity in the town centre by more than 300 vehicles by installing a deck over an existing surface car park.  An independent parking study found a need for additional parking to meet both current demand and future need as the economy grows. A council spokesman said: “Put simply, there are not enough car parking spaces in Sevenoaks, especially long-stay spaces, for people who work in the town.” The plans would see the capac

Wycombe District Council’s Easton Street multi-storey car park will be undergoing a major refurbishment this summer.  The renovation is being carried out by USL StructureCare. The 498-space multi-storey, which was built in 1972, has a planned maintenance and inspection regime in place, which has enabled the council to upgrade the structure before serious problems emerged.  The upgrade has been designed by the council’s in-house engineers with advice from Vinci.  Th

Operating over 150,000 parking spaces across 500 sites means National Car Parks (NCP) clocks up a significant energy bill just powering the lighting across its estate. The company has now embarked on a re-lighting project using LED technology which will, it is estimated, save it £25m across the lifetime of the new system. The operator has sought to be a socially and ethically responsible organisation, and since 2010 has secured 100% of its electricity from green sources. However, it recogn

Car parks are not usually destinations in themselves, but last month a group of over 40 people donned hi-vis jackets and hard hats to tour the multi-storey serving the Merrion Centre in Leeds. The tour was organised by the team refurbishing the car park to show a range of systems and techniques being applied to the project, including the use of carbon fibre wrapping to strengthen parking decks and sacrificial anodes to counter the corrosive effects of chlorides on steel reinforcement concrete.

Bullring has been a vibrant market area in Birmingham since the Middle Ages. The area was redeveloped just over a decade ago to create a new focal point for the city centre’s retail offer. Bullring is now home to 160 shops, including Selfridges and Debenhams, and 25 restaurants  Bullring’s catchment area extends to a drive time of 60 minutes, with a potential of 7.2 million people who can easily access it. The centre attracts on average 38 million visitors a year, many of whom

The top deck of a multi-storey in Ealing, west London, undergoes a change of image when the sun goes down, transforming into a hipster venue where you can unwind, partake of refreshments and watch films. Occupancy of the 465-space Springbridge Road site drops off significantly during the summer as commuters take a break from work. So, for the second year running, Ealing council has agreed for Ealing Broadway Business Improvement District (BID) to transform Level 7 into a cinema and bar. The even

Shopping centre developers long put a lot of work into creating attractive environments for shoppers. The same is now increasingly true for the way in which they treat the car parks that serve these destinations. Ensuring that people can find the fastest and easiest route to the shops, and remember where they have parked, is a key aspect of creating user-friendly retail parking, believes Sean Brereton, creative director of The Velvet Principle, a London-based destinat

Trinity Leeds is a 1 million sq ft scheme launched in the city centre by Land Securities in March 2013. It was the only major retail and leisure development to open in the UK in either 2012 or 2013. The centre brought 46 new names to the city, including Apple, Hollister, Mango, Victoria’s Secret and Superdry. Trinity Leeds also provides a key leisure draw with a 40,000sq ft Everyman cinema and a range of restaurants, including Crafthouse & Angelica by D&D London, Carluccio’s

Whether it is on-street or off-street, the proliferation of payment channels and their underlying protocols is bringing new challenges to parking scheme operators and owners when it comes to back office data integration. While traditional pay-on-foot systems remain popular around the country, consumer expectation around payment flexibility is also growing, and with it comes the need to ensure that centralised management systems keep pace. In the case of Parkeon, this means not only reconciling

Around ten years ago I was an off-street area manager with a national private sector car park company. I had been instructed by head office to raise charges at a city centre multi-storey just before the Christmas rush began. On my next visit to the site I was given the local newspaper by one of my team. On the front page was a vertical headline with three words: “Nice Christmas Present”, with the first letter of each word highlighted in a familiar yellow and black font. Beneath this

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

Drivers using The Queen’s Terminal car park are directed to the nearest available parking bay by a system of variable message signs and light indicators above each spot. Each bay within Terminal 2’s car park is monitored by its own individual ANPR camera, which keeps track of what bays are occupied. This means when customers return to the car park, they can use ‘Car Finder’ terminals to locate their car within the five level structure. The Highlight parking bay guidance

Steve Bogg, Heathrow’s car park manager, runs a lot of car parking – 23,200 spaces in total. Up until 3 June, he was responsible for 21,700 spaces, and then on 4 June, he oversaw the commissioning of his 14th site, the 1,500-space car park serving the new Terminal 2 development, known as The Queen’s Terminal. As a major gateway to the £2.5 billion terminal, the car park is an integral part of the operation and had to work from Day One. Like the check-outs, baggage systems

Providing more secure bays for motorcycles at rail stations should be seen as a vital part of managing parking demand, according to the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). In a new report on motorcycle parking, the association says that motorbikes are increasingly seen as a cheaper alternative to car use over distances considered too great to cycle.  “In many instances motorcycles bring financial benefits for the user, as often they are not charged for parking,” sa

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

The underground car park used by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to meet the anonymous source known as “Deep Throat” is to be demolished. The car park in Arlington, Virginia, was the site of clandestine meetings between the two during the Watergate investigation in the early 1970s. The car park is located below two 12-storey buildings, which are to be replaced by a new residential and commercial development. Arlington county board officials said that a ‘historical marker

Local authorities are starting to transfer their paper-based parking and traffic management orders to an electronic, map-based system. This reduces the need to manage often cumbersome paper files and means the presentation and revision of orders is made easier, says technical design consultancy Project Centre, which is part of NSL Services. A major benefit of switching to a map-based platform is the opportunity to consolidate all forms of permit, pay & display and free parking places, along

Parkeon has installed its ticketless ParkREG system, which uses ANPR to record details of cars using a site at the New Square shopping centre development in West Bromwich. The system tracks vehicles as they enter and leave the car park. Cameras positioned on each of the entry lanes to the centre car park record the number plate and vehicle. This information acts as a virtual ticket and is stored in a database.  No ticket is issued, so drivers do not need to display a ticket in their winds

Flowcrete UK will be showing its Deckshield range of polyurethane car park protection systems at Parkex 2014. The coatings are being used in the UK and overseas. Recent contracts include: Euston Station’s car park; the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, where 2,600m2 of Deckshield ED was used; and the car park at Berkeley Homes’ London Riverside, which used 3,400m2 of Deckshield ID.  Deckshield is also used internationally, with Flowcrete supplying over 500,000m2 of coat

Makers Construction will be showing its range of car park solutions at Parkex. These include undertaking initial condition surveys, doing budget costings, establishing Life Care Plans to managing complete refurbishments comprising concrete repairs, installing expansion joints, waterproofing and protective coating systems. The company is a five-time winner at the British Parking Awards. It won recognition for four sites: Lurke Street, Bedford (2005); Queen Street, Bedford (2007); Edmonton Green,

The Vangarde Shopping Park development at Monks Cross in York will create a new football and rugby stadium adjacent to retail and leisure attractions.  The scheme will be served by parking for 1,350 cars and an extra 400 spaces for the existing park & ride Monk Cross facility, which will provide stadium car parking on match-days. The project will see the provision of a new 6,000 all-seater stadium and community facilities for York City Football Club and York Knights Rugby League Club

Heathrow’s new Terminal 2, The Queen’s Terminal, which replaces the old terminal which was built in 1955, will feature a 1,500-space multi-storey car park. Delegates at Parking & Property were given a sneak preview of the new facility by Steve Bogg, Car Park Manager at Heathrow. His presentation showed how the car park comprises five levels which have been created to mirror the structure of the terminal. The terminal’s departures forecourt is on the roof-deck of the car pa

Shoppers parking facilities have been upgraded as part of the expansion of a Lidl store in Leicester. The discount supermarket was expanded by Britcon, a structural steelwork contractor. A total of 13,840 square feet of extra space was provided to allow the addition of a bakery. Twenty-seven new surface parking spaces were created in April, bringing the store’s total to 128.

Proposals for a 40-storey residential tower served by a multi-storey car park have been submitted  to Portsmouth City Council. The plans are part of The Hard waterfront redevelopment of an area between the historic naval vessel HMS Warrior and Gunwharf Quays shopping centre. Developer Bouyages plans to demolish the 1960s-built Brunel House and replace it and the existing Havant Street surface car park with a new landmark building called Brunel Tower. The Portsmouth Society has welcomed pla

A new park & ride service serving Portsmouth started operating last month. The £38m facility, which provides 650 parking spaces, is located at Tipner off the M275. A new motorway junction and bus priority lanes were created to accommodate the P&R service. First Bus will be operating services between Tipner and Portsmouth city centre via the Historic Dockyard and Gunwharf Quay at 12-minute intervals. Tickets have been initially set at £2 per car a day. This is cheaper than u

Oxford City Council has granted outline planning permission to Land Securities and the Crown Estate for the £500m Westgate Centre project. The project will mix 100 retail units with leisure, including a cinema, and feature covered streets, lanes, public squares and housing. The scheme will be served by a basement car park of between 900 and 1,100 spaces. The Westgate Oxford Alliance is drawing up detailed designs with four architectural practices: Allies & Morrison; Dixon Jones Archi

The Eastgate shopping centre is a major destination in the heart of Basildon, which attracts around 15 million visitors to the Essex town centre. The centre comprises a covered shopping centre, an Asda supermarket, a Debenhams department store, two office buildings and a 700-space multi-storey car park. Other retailers include Superdry, New Look, H&M, River Island, Topshop, Next and Primark. Over the past two years the 25-year-old car park has undergone a major refurbishment, which has seen

Water and road salts can have a corrosive effect on concrete car parks, which means that car parks in coastal resorts are especially vulnerable. This has been the case with parking facilities belonging to Brighton &?Hove City Council, which has embarked on a programme of upgrading its structures. The most recent is a three-storey underground car park located in Regency Square on Brighton’s seafront. The Regency Square car park, constructed in 1969 from reinforced in situ concrete, has

English Heritage is staging an exhibition in London which shows how the car has transformed the landscape. Carscapes: How the Motor Car Reshaped England accompanies a book by John Minnis and Kathryn A Morrison.  Archive photographs and a selection of historic advertising, cartoons and motoring magazines testify to how the English countryside and streets radically changed between the 1890s and 2010s, at first to accommodate the arrival of the motor car and later to manage ever increasing tr

A 1960s multi-storey in the centre of Bedford, which had faced demolition, has been refurbished and will now act as a key element of a new gateway to the town centre. The Allhallows car park, which was reopened to the public over the Easter weekend, has been revamped by Bedford Borough Council at a cost of £8.8m. The refurbishment, which was carried out by Makers Construction, has seen the car park’s exterior and interior remodelled and upgraded. The old brickwork exterior has bee

Q-Park’s Dale Street car park is the latest addition to the operator’s ‘cluster’ in Liverpool. However, what sets this multi-storey apart from sites such as the Q-Parks serving the Liverpool ONE shopping centre and Liverpool Royal?Infirmary is that it is a stand alone car park. The multi-storey, which is owned by Aviva, was built as part of a £10m development project; which included the construction of an Ibis Styles hotel. Q-Park, which designed the car park, hold

Plymouth City Council has revealed proposals for a £42m leisure complex and coach hub served by 400 parking spaces.  The scheme would include a 12-screen Cineworld multiplex and 13 retail units being built on the Bretonside bus station site. The project is being developed with British Land, owner of the existing Drake Circus shopping mall, which opened in 2006. British Land would buy the Bretonside site. A new coach station would be built on the site of the Mayflower West End car p

Repairs to pavements should be factored into estimates of the cost of repairing roads, pedestrian charity Living Streets has said. The campaign group was reacting to a survey of local authorities conducted by the Asphalt Industry Alliance which estimated the cost of restoring roads in England and Wales to a reasonable condition to be £12bn. Pavements, which are often damaged by parked cars, should feature in repairs, said Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Living Streets. “The pav

Construction has begun on a £4.2m truck stop on the A1 at Leeming, North Yorkshire. Clugstan Construction is the main contractor for Exelby Services. The facility will be open to truckers and the general public. It will offer parking for 200 HGVs and 150 cars, and will feature rest areas for HGV drivers, retail facilities, branded food outlets and Costa Coffee café.  The new service area replaces the previous Exelby truck stop, which was affected by modifications to the A1 tha

Triflex has achieved British Board of Agrément (BBA) accreditation for eight of its core cold, liquid-applied waterproofing and surfacing systems.  Brett Wood from the BBA presented Triflex marketing manager Kate Killeen with the certificates at the company’s UK head office and training facility in Stone, Staffordshire on 18 February.  The certificates include an approval for its Triflex ProPark car park waterproofing and surfacing system. After undergoing reviews of exi

A major redevelopment the Broadmarsh Shopping centre in Nottingham has now been agreed between the council-owned centre and stakeholder Intu Properties. The £150m proposed investment by the developer and Nottingham City Council will see the redevelopment of the 1970s vintage Broadmarsh shopping centre and its 1,263-space multi-storey car park, which connects to the centre via a bridge.  The scheme also includes public realm improvements and the pedestrianisation of some surrounding s

The former MG Rover site at Longbridge is to be turned into a mixed-use development, with new shops and 2,000 new homes. St Modwen is developer and joint landowner of the £1bn regeneration project which will create a new town centre.  The scheme will have spaces for up to 2,000 vehicles at a number of car parks across the development. This includes a 200-space surface car park, with 20 disabled spaces and four electric vehicle-charging points.  The development also includes a l

The commercial lorry park Stop 24 Services has retained its Safer Parking Park Mark accreditation following a reassessment by Kent Police. The services can accommodate 180 commercial vehicles, with a dedicated area for customs clearance procedures, plus a rest area for drivers in the main terminal building with showers and toilet facilities. The site is staffed on a 24-hours a day basis and has barrier/ANPR controlled vehicle access, which includes video and photographic security systems. 

Work has begun on a new £70m retail development in Stafford, West Midlands, which is being built on the site of the old recreation centre, Tesco supermarket and multi-storey car park.  The new Riverside development includes a Marks & Spencer store, 18-unit retail units and a six-screen cinema, served by a 1,000 space multi-storey car park. There will be a further 180 spaces in a sub-basement car park under the proposed M&S store. The project, which is being carried out by dev

Parking & Property 2014 takes place in 15 May The fourth annual Parking & Property conference and exhibition takes place in London on 15 May. The event is the only forum devoted to the design, construction, maintenance and upkeep of off-street parking. The conference is organised by Parking Review magazine in partnership with consultancy Parking Matters. "Car parks are an essential but often overlooked form of building," says Mark Moran, editor of Parking Review. "They are key element

A short film promoting the creation of “water sensitive cities” as a way of addressing the problems of flooding, pollution and water shortages has won a Sustainable Water Industry Group (SWIG) Award. The animation was commissioned by the Landscape Institute, building industry advisory body CIRIA and consultants ARUP and AECOM.  Aimed at landscape architects, engineers, developers and planners, the film explains the application of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) principles

Although most people living in new housing developments in London want a space to park their car, few will use it for commuting, according to new research carried out for housebuilder the Berkeley Group. The research, carried out by WSP, looked at 14 new developments and interviewed 539 people living in central and suburban areas across the capital. The findings expand on Berkeley Group’s previous research into parking in 2011, with more developments surveyed and a greater number of inter

Systems that locate empty parking bays and cars that park themselves used to be the stuff of science-fiction, but now are now featured in the showrooms of carmakers like BMW, Ford and Volvo.  Ideas like robot cars were suggested by science-fiction author and biochemistry professor Isaac Asimov writing in the New York Times in 1964. His reflections on the world of 2014 were inspired by the lack of visions of the future at the New York World Fair. “The world of AD 2014 will have few ro

Developers in the US city of Minnesota want to build a golf course and putting ranges on the roof of two city centre car parks. This idea, which struck us as novel when we published it last month, turns out to be one with a strong heritage. Reading the fascinating English Heritage book Carscapes revealed that the idea of turning a car park into a golf course was pitched over 70 years ago in London by Lex Garages. The company was launched in 1928 to establish a chain of parking garages across L

Over 80 entrants are competing to make the finals of the British Parking Awards 2014. The annual competition, organised by Parking Review magazine, recognises best practice and innovation across the on-street and off-street parking sector. The full list of nominees can seen by clicking here The entries are now being assessed by an expert panel of a dozen people drawn from the worlds of parking and transport consultancy, which supports the competition. The short list of finalists is set to be

The British Parking Awards 2014 will be hosted by Shappi Khorsandi, the Iranian comedian and author whose television appearances include Mock The Week and Live at the Apollo.  The awards ceremony takes place at the Lancaster London on Friday 7 March. The deadline for entries is Wednesday 15 January. Details of the categorioes and criteria can be found at: www.britishparkingawards.co.uk Besides her TV work, Shappi Khorsandi is a regular on Radio

The Broad Street multi-storey car park in Birmingham has been resurfaced using a new product from Tremco Illbrook. Copeland Wedge Associates is the consultant and contract supervisor while Prestec UK was appointed as the specialist contactor. Prestec’s contracts manager, Frank Walsh, said: “The top deck of the car park was in a very poor state of upkeep and there was the added complication of it being a post-tensioned deck – which meant although there were no expansion joints

A new £90m retail, residential and leisure development in Walthamstow town centre, north-east London, will feature more than 320 parking spaces, most set aside for shoppers.  The South?Grove development will consist of a Morrisons superstore and retail units, above which will be built 240 one to four-bedroom apartments. Developer South Grove Regeneration has hired DLA?Architecture to design the project. The single-storey 321-space parking deck will provide 19 disabled spaces &ndash

A 320-space underground car park will feature in the £200m Haymarket development in Edinburgh that will replace an NCP multi-storey on the site.  Developer Interserve and Tiger Developments entered into a joint venture agreement in April 2013 to develop the four-acre site next to Haymarket rail station. The scheme has full planning consent for 404,000 sq ft of offices and 60,000 sq ft of commercial and leisure space, as well as a 165-room hotel. Network Rail is allowing preparatory

The Augusta National in georgia, Pine Valley in New Jersey and Pebble Beach in California are among the best golf courses in the United States. Maybe one day the names Target Center and Target Field in Minnesota will join them. The difference between these clubs and the others is that they would be urban built on the  rooftops of a pair of multi-storey car parks in the centre of Minneapolis. The idea of turning the top floors of the Target Center and Target Field parking ramps (to use the

Stirling Lloyd, manufacturer of the Decseal waterproofing system for car parks, has received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The company, which is based in Knutsford, Cheshire, received the award for its working exporting Decseal to over 50 countries.  John Volpicelli, Stirling Lloyd exports director, said: “Our company’s expansion is driven by export sales, which now account for over 60% of our business.”

Birmingham City Council could close and sell off under-utilised city centre car parks as part of a strategy aimed at reducing car dependency and increasing the use of public transport, walking and cycling. The idea of selling off some multi-storeys is raised in the Birmingham Mobility Action Plan (BMAP), which has been developed by the city council working with consultant WSP. Birmingham residents currently own 380,000 cars and make 2.8m single direction journeys each weekday. The BMAP study e

After a period of running cashless only parking, Barnet Council in north London is reintroducing on-street parking machines. The council is installing pay & display machines after concerns were raised by local traders and residents about only having the option to pay for parking via phones or by buying parking sessions or scratch-cards at libraries and local shops. The council operates the PayByPhone phone parking system both on and off-street. Motorists can also buy parking time links via

APCOA Parking (UK) has retained 13 Park Marks across its First Great Western rail line management estate in Devon and Cornwall. The station car parks assessed were at: Banstaple, Bodmin, Bridgwater, Dawlish, Exeter Central,?Exeter Main, Exeter Wards Yard, Exmouth, Redruth (car parks 1 and 2), Teignmouth, Torquay and Tiverton. APCOA has also been awarded the Park Mark for its rail station operations at Exeter St David’s, St?Erith, Penzance and Newquay.  APCOA has also retained all fo

Brighton & Hove City Council’s Regency Square and Trafalgar Street car parks have been awarded Park Mark status under the Safer Parking Scheme. The council has invested £4.2m in refurbishing the car parks. Work included repainting, improved lighting and signage, together with vehicle and pedestrian controlled access.  Incidents of crime have reduced significantly over the last 12 months, now being in single figures. The car parks are used by around 325,000 vehicles a year.

The British Parking Awards 2014 will include new categories including the Best Car Park Operation Award, which is being sponsored by the Safer Parking Scheme. The Best Car Park Operation Award recognises that there are many great existing car parks across the UK that deserve recognition for the way they are operated and maintained.  The award will recognise the operation of a specific car park. Sites may be multi-level or surface. They can be ones serving: a town centre; shopping centre; a

The Port of Southampton is one of the UK’s largest vehicle handling ports, with over 650,000 automotive vehicles passing through the port in 2012. The majority of these vehicles were UK manufactured cars shipped for export. To accommodate this traffic efficiently, Associated British Ports developed over 80 hectares of dedicated vehicle storage and distribution compounds. The facilities include four multi-deck vehicle terminals, the most recent of which is a steel-framed structure with con

A team of six staff from the car park division of the liquid waterproofing manufacturer Triflex took part in the Bupa Birmingham half-marathon to raise £1,000 for charity. The race, in which more than 20,000 runners participated, took place on 20 October and covered a ‘hilly’ 13.1 mile course around Birmingham city centre. Richard Bowyer, business development manager, and his team mates raised money for Macmillan Cancer Support. “The atmosphere was fantastic and even the

A nine-storey car park forms part of the proposed Chapel Street regeneration scheme in Salford.  The car park received planning permission in 2010 as part of the regeneration scheme being undertaken by The English Cities Fund – a joint venture between Muse Developments, Legal & General Property and The Homes & Communities Agency (HCA). A reserved matters application has been submitted covering issues such as design, layout and scale. It is suggested that the 620-space car pa

Plans for a 9,000-space car park at Manchester Airport has been approved by the city council. The off-airport surface car park is to be built on a 70-acre (28.5 hectare) former greenbelt site in Wythenshawe, north-east of the airport. The car park would be divided into four sections, with parts closed down during times of low demand (typically between November and March for long stay parking). The sections would be separated by landscaped belts, and linked by an estate road to allow for circul

The Regent Arcade shopping centre is located in the heart of Cheltenham’s town centre and occupies the site of an ancient hotel, dating back to 1654. The hotel was demolished in 1980 to make way for the Arcade, a major shopping complex in the Cotswold town, which was built in 1985. The Arcade offers parking on several levels above the shopping mall, with more than 500 spaces. In 2010 refurbishment specialist Makers Construction were called in to begin a refurbishment of the car park. The

The Meadowhall Centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, is a truly massive retail attraction offering 280 stores providing 1.5 million square feet of retail space. The popularity of the centre has seen it increase its parking provision over the years, including the building of new parking decks. It now provides 12,000 free parking spaces, as well as access via rail and Sheffield’s Supertram system. The Meadowhall Centre has won many awards for its retail offers and its engineering. But the ce

A lack of investment in maintenance, and a failure to specify appropriate repair materials, can lead to the deterioration of both multi-storey and surface car park environments. The result can be significant health & safety problems which could cost car park operators and owners dearly in the long run. Filling in wheel ruts Indentations on parking decks, if left untreated, can become a major source of problems. “Exposed and internal paving mastic asphalt based car park waterproofing

Work has begun on a new £3.5m transport interchange at Galashiels serving the Borders to Edinburgh railway. The first phase of work will see the re-alignment of Stirling Street to create an area for the new building adjacent to Ladhope Vale. This work will also include the creation of a new civic space on the former bus station and surface parking for 100 vehicles. The new car park will be created on the remainder of the former bus station to replace spaces. Work on the new Transport In

A multi-million pound project to create the UK’s first ‘members only’ clubhouse near Heathrow Airport for professional drivers has been unveiled. The facility, which could be open to taxi drivers and chauffeurs by the end of 2014, will be open to members 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Provisionally known as the Professional Drivers’ Club, it will provide a facility where members can meet, eat, sleep and exercise. It will also be a base for vehicle services such as fill

A new Sainsbury’s supermarket in Bicester, Oxfordshire, has parking for 440 cars on two decks above the store. The store, designed by Lyons Sleaman &?Hoare, has been faced with local materials. The stone and timber motif has been also carried through into the car park’s façade. Main contractor Bowmer &?Kirkland had to take account of the structural function of the car park, so worked closely with engineers GGA to prevent water ingress from the car park into the store.

Stonehenge was built between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC and is thought to have been used for a variety of religious ceremonies. More recently the World Heritage site has become a popular tourist attraction. Now, after years of discussion and false starts, it seems that the site will finally get a car park and visitor centre that is fit for purpose. The first phase of the long-delayed Stonehenge Visitor Centre will open to the public on 18 December, in time for the Winter Solstice on 21 December. The

The owners and operators of car parks have to meet various obligations, many of which are Health & Safety related. Put simply, they need to ensure that they are operating a safe structure and that no undue risk is presented to those using their facilities. So, how do car park owners and operators ensure they are complying with these legal obligations? The answer is to implement a Life Care Plan. This is a systematic approach to inspection and maintenance which involves regular checks on the

Berry Systems installed one of its largest ever car park safety barrier projects at Westfield Stratford City, where over seven kilometres of Berry?Systems’ Beam barriers were mounted on Berry’s impact absorbing spring steel buffers. The centre has 5,000 parking spaces across two integral and one adjacent multi-storey car park. The safety barriers were specified by architects Buchan Group International. The car parks have steel framed and concrete decks, while their façades co

The multi-storey serving the Marks & Spencer Ecostore in Cheshire Oaks was named Best?New Car Park at Parking Review’s 2013 British Parking Awards.Designed by Aukett Fitzroy, the 950-space car park was built by Simons Developments of Lincoln. The car park picks up the environmental theme of the adjoining store, evident in features such as living walls and the electric vehicle charging points. The car park also features an innovative Berry Systems perimeter safety barriers that combin

A 500-space car park has been completed in Dundee, Scotland. The East Marketgait multi-storey serves a new leisure centre that forms part of Dundee City Council’s redevelopment of the city’s waterfront area. The leisure facility features a competition sized swimming pool, health suite, café and flumes. The car park, which incorporates a retail unit, is linked to the leisure centre by a central foyer. The project was designed by Dundee City Council’s architectural servi

Miami in the state of Florida is a city renowned for its beaches, banks and its Art Deco architecture. Like most US cities, it is dominated by automobiles and multi-storey car parks, or garages as locals call them. Most tourists arriving in the city will check out landmarks such as the Downtown Miami Historic District, Deco buildings like Freedom Tower, or striking new structures like the Adrienne Arsht Center. A growing number of visitors will also be making a point of checking out the garages

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

Cities around the world have been transformed by the automobile, with many collared by ring roads and motorways that scythe through residential neighbourhoods.Monolithic road projects such as the Westway between Paddington and North Kensington bear witness to the era when the car was king where urban planning was concerned. But, hard as it might be to imagine, things could have been much worse. In pulling together this month’s Parking Review car park design special, we came across an ama

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

The increasing size of cars means they are outgrowing parking spaces that are now too small to fit them and is costing motorists millions of pounds in repair bills for damaged paintwork, according to a new study by car parts retailer Halfords and paint repair specialist G3 Pro. As car manufacturers strive to offer more interior space, crash protection and comfort, the average size of a car has increased while, in contrast, Department for Transport guidance on governing car park space sizes has

Parkeon has long been associated with pay & display technology which is increasingly in competition with cashless phone parking technology. In recent years the company has been expanding its product range to feature not just cashless terminals which accept the latest chip &?PIN and wave & pay cards, but also ticketless terminals which are linked to automated number plate recognition (ANPR) technology. While Parkeon has even launched a phone parking system of its own, Whoosh!, the co

A car park created in a tunnel dug below a Finnish city won the New Car Park category in the European Parking Awards, which were presented in Dublin last month. A total of 29 participants from 12 European countries competed in the four categories. New Car Park: The Finnish city of Tampere lacked sufficient parking to serve its city centre shopping malls and offices. With space at ground level scarce, the decision was taken to create a new public parking facility underground. A 650-metre long,

The Queens Market in east London was made famous last year when over one million people watched one of its traders singing the “One Pound Fish” song on YouTube last year. While the trader made the headlines, the market’s car park has been undergoing a refit which, Newham council hopes, will also be well received by the public. The second phase of the refurbishment was scheduled to minimise disruption to a car park that used daily by local residents throughout the week. It is

Stockton Borough Council is currently revamping its town centre as part of a £38m regeneration project. The improvements will include more on-street parking, new surface car parks, with a variety of shops, open spaces and markets. The project has been designed by the council’s in-house technical services team and undertaken by Birse Civils, part of Balfour Beatty. The council has installed an 8-bay layby at the south end of the scheme as well as a 34-space car park – this is

A central London shoppers’ car park received a striking makeover when artist Simon Claridge  transformed three bays into ‘designer spaces’ at Q-Park Oxford Street. From 22-26 August Claridge created the designer spaces at the premier parking site. The artwork was inspired by the colours of the latest Alfa Romeo Giulietta Collezione. Each bay was filled with a montage of style icons from the 20th century and drivers parked their vehicles surrounded by portraits of stars su

Peterborough City Council has replaced aging, coin-only pay & display machines with units that accept cash and a variety of card types. The council has taken delivery of 19 Parkeon Strada Rapide terminals, which accept coins, chip & PIN and contactless card payments. “Until now, coins were the only way that drivers could pay for parking,” said Peterborough’s parking manager Mick Dolan. “A daily charge of £5.50 in our busiest car park meant that people neede

A car park in Miami has been announced as the world’s ‘coolest’ in a competition organised by architectural magazine FX and meet & greet parking company Stress Free Airport Parking. Miami’s 1111 Lincoln Road, was the winner with Lyon’s Park de Celestins in second place and Charles Street in Sheffield placed third. The awards were judged by Jamie Mitchell, assistant editor of FX, and Dave Greenbrown, co-founder of Stress Free Airport Parking, who said: “In

Q-Park is to refurbish a multi-storey shoppers’ car park in central Leeds. The operator took over the Albion Street car park, formerly called West Riding House, in Leeds city centre in November 2012.  The multi-storey is located near central shopping and leisure destinations including Briggate, The Light and the new Trinity Leeds shopping centre. Soon after taking over management of the car park, Q-Park conducted user surveys to better understand the needs and views of existing custo

Cambridgeshire County Council has submitted a planning application for a new railway station at Cambridge Science Park interchange. The new station is designed to form a transport hub serving Cambridge’s main business areas, including the Science Park, St John’s Innovation Centre and the Cambridge Business Park. The scheme, designed by engineering consultant Atkins, will create a transport hub joining up rail, bus services, pedestrian and cycling facilities at the Science Park. The

Sika, a manufacturer and supplier of materials for the construction industry, has launched its ‘Registered Contractor Scheme’ for the car parking sector. The scheme is designed to ensure that Sika decking solutions are correctly installed and applied in order to give site owners, engineers and architects confidence that quality control is properly undertaken. “Registered contractors must be able to provide evidence of a stable trading history, good project references, a skille

A new off-airport car park aimed at holiday-makers flying from Glasgow International Airport was opened by the Airlink Group last month.The 1,250 purpose-built park & ride site is branded Park N Fly. It has been awarded a Park Mark under the Secured Parking Scheme. The car park has transfer times of between 3-5 minutes to the terminal building. Park N Fly is owned by Scottish parking company Airlink Group, which has operated at Glasgow since 1994. The company now has seven car parks servin

When Jim Jackman first set foot in the parking industry in 1983, The Police topped the Billboard charts with ‘Every Breath You Take’, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in her second term of office and Nelson Piquet had won the Formula One Championship. Now 68, Jackman, is APCOA Parking (UK)’s longest-serving employee. During his three decades with the company, Jackman has worked for four different managing directors and, though he has focussed on off-street parking in city

Alan Partridge, the renowned  former television presenter and now East Anglian digital radio personality, has made a film, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. As a way of thanking his fans, Partridge agreed to premiere the film not in the predictable environs of Leicester Square but in Anglia Square, Norwich, from where his programme Mid Morning Matters is broadcast on North Norfolk Digital Radio. The premiere at the Hollywood Cinema took place at lunchtime on 24 July. Partridge appeared on the r

Refurbishment works on a multi-storey in the centre of Lincoln will take longer than expected because corrosion of the steel-reinforcement has been revealed to be worse than anticipated. The 458-space Lucy Tower car park, which was built in the 1970s, closed in March for what was planned to to be a five-month renovation costing £1.4m (PR April). John Bibby, director of housing and community services for the council, said the original 20-week schedule was based on surveys undertaken by s

A decked car park serves a new Tesco store and housing development in Woolwich, south-east London. The project is headed by Tesco’s development arm Spenhill, with Wilmott Dixon being the main contractor. The store was completed at the end of 2012 and the housing element is nearing completion. The car park features 450 linear metres of movement joints supplied and installed by Radflex Contract Services.

Work has begun on a £13m multi-storey car park at Bristol Parkway train station. The project will add 710 extra spaces to the station’s existing 1,100-space, single-storey parking deck. Network Rail is carrying out the work with train operator First Great Western. The car park is scheduled for completion by March 2014. The three-storey car park designed by architects Building Design Partnership (BDP), will be constructed in the area north of the station building. The works will see

Brighton & Hove City Council has completed a £4.2m refurbishment of two of its car parks. Both structures had been affected by exposure to contaminants and salty sea air. Built in 1969, the Regency Square Car Park is a three storey underground car park located in the prestigious Regency Square on Brighton’s seafront. The smaller Trafalgar Road Car Park is a multi-storey structure in the heart of the shopping district. Brighton & Hove City Council’s refurbishment plan

The European Parking Awards will be presented at the 16th European Parking Congress, which is being held in Dublin from 11-13 September. The EPA Awards are a biannual competition designed to promote improvements in on and off-street public parking. A total of 29 entries from a dozen countries were made across the competition’s four categories. Three British projects were submitted, including VINCI Park’s Lister Hospital car park in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and Q-Park’s refur

Parkeon has supplied a total of 220 solar-powered Strada parking payment terminals to NSL Services for use in Northern Ireland. The new machines are being installed in 55 car parks owned by Northern Ireland’s Department for Regional Development Roads Service. Some 29 of the car parks were previously managed via manned kiosks, while the remaining 26 have changed from free to pay & display operation.  The sites are managed by NSL on behalf of the the Roads Service, which is the

A major redevelopment of Theale Railway Station, in Berkshire, has received approval. The £2.9m scheme at the First Great Western-run station will see a 200-space park & rail car park, new footbridge and lifts spanning the three lines, as well as a new ticket office and pedestrian entrance. Consultant AECOM has said work is scheduled to begin in October, with the project to be completed by February 2014. The majority of the funding has come through a joint bid by West Berkshire and R

Undergound car parking is set to serve a riverside development in Leeds. Commercial Development Projects (CDP) is proposing to build 77 apartments as well as retail, office and parking on land it owns in the city centre. Warehouse Hill, at 20-24 The Calls, is the last significant parcel of land left for development along the River Aire in Leeds city centre. The development will be centred around a public piazza adjacent to the river. Leeds-based civil and structural engineering consultancy J

The new Castle multi-storey car park in Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, has a structure that combines steel and wood. The three-level MSCP was built on the site of a surface car park. The Ecodex structure,  designed and built by Bourne Parking, combines birch plywood decks with a steel frame. Nick Hayes, managing director at Bourne Parking, said this combines the environmental benefits of timber  construction with strength of steel. Ecodex also reduces build time by 30%, he said. The &

Parkeon has extended its range of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) based solutions with the introduction of ‘ParkREG with Barriers’. This combination of ANPR and barriers has been designed for mixed-use car parks, which serve different user groups at varying times. Parkeon says the system can be used in either manned or unattended car parks. ParkREG with Barriers combines vehicle detection sensors, ANPR cameras and barriers with Parkeon’s Strada NEOPS payment terminal

Two London airports have introduced a toll-style parking system developed by APT Skidata. Drivers entering a new piority drop-off/pick-up zone at London Luton Airport are monitored by ANPR cameras integrated with the APT Skidata Express.Cash system. As vehicles exit via one of four lanes, a fixed-fee payment is facilitated either in a toll style bucket, or via credit/debit card. The system is networked within Luton’s parking infrastructure, allowing central monitoring, auditing and rep

A multi-storey car park in the St Matthew’s Quarter of Walsall has been upgraded. The refurbishment of the 1,000-space car park is part of a £90m leisure and retail-led regeneration scheme of the West Midlands’ town centre. Failure of the car park’s existing waterproof coating led to the need for the repair work. Main contractor VINCI Construction specified Stirling Lloyd’s Decseal system based on its experience using the process on several other car parks. Stir

Construction work is set to start on a £65m office development in Glasgow city centre, more than a year after it secured planning permission. The project developer Abstract (Glasgow) said works on the speculative venture known as St Vincent Plaza would start after it of completed the purchase of 303 St Vincent Place. The ten-storey building will have ground-floor parking for 78 cars. The office will be home to a workforce of around 2,000. The low parking provision reflects the fact th