T he power of a community

BPA members work hard every day to ensure that we keep people moving and get to where they are going in their millions each and every day. Our private and public sector members are now working more collaboratively than ever before, through necessity and often through adversity, coming together to find solutions as a result of significant issues we face across our sector.

The BPA has, over 53 years, earned the respect of governments as trusted and credible advisors. While the deterrent effect of parking and penalty charges may be politically complicated, it is great to see our diverse BPA community doing what it does best. Coming together to evidence why charge levels need to provide a sufficient deterrent to enable effective parking management. This remains a priority and we will continue to work diligently to achieve this.

I’d like to thank Lord Lucas for hosting us in what is a new venue for the BPA’s annual reception, the House of Lords, which is the second chamber of the UK Parliament. The house plays a crucial role in examining bills, questioning government action, and investigating public policy.

Indeed, The Parking Code of Practice Bill made its original journey through both Houses before becoming law in 2019 and this year, we hope to finally see the publication of the new code of practice and the framework that will deliver higher standards in the regulation of private parking. It has been a long road to get to this point, but the achievement should not be underestimated.

A personal journey

It’s such an honour to have the opportunity to represent a sector I have now been a part of for almost 15 years. I have been actively involved in the BPA community for eight years across various boards and working groups. For that entire period, I have been at the same company. UK Parking Control, which is now part of Intelli-Park Group. The company’s own journey mirrors many of the changes seen in the parking sector. For example, it reflects the changing demand for parking and the change to more data-led solutions that provide enhanced resolutions to often complex problems. I would like to thank the owners and senior team at Intelli-Park for their support in allowing me the space and time to fully commit to this leading role.

Strength through diversity

The BPA community contributes significantly to society and to our economy and, together, we have a key role to play in supporting growth as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.

Our towns and city centres, our high streets, our business, our hospitals – they all depend and rely on well-managed, wellmaintained, structurally sound parking facilities that are safe and accessible for everyone.

Our strength is in our diverse and inclusive BPA community. Whether we work in the public or private sector, it is important that we work collaboratively, where possible, to raise standards, change perceptions, and demonstrate our commitment to a cleaner, greener, and safer society through effective parking management.

Our membership community continues to evolve and reflect the increasing complexity of our dynamic sector. Just compare the exhibitors at our trade show Parkex this year to 10 years ago with much greater focus on technology, data, environment and with a global outlook. Our new three-year strategic plan demonstrates our association’s relevance and it is clearly needed now more than ever before. Whether it is electric vehicles, the National Parking Platform, data standards and the work of the APDS, our BPA community continues to come together in record numbers to solve problems and work with partners internationally to find solutions.

Developing skills

I am delighted to see progress on Park Access, an accessible parking and charging accreditation which was launched at Parkex. Our aim is to provide a reliable data source for drivers with accessibility needs, parents with children, and others, so that they can locate safe parking and charging destinations when journey planning. We are grateful for the support of Graham Footer from Disabled Motoring UK and disability travel champion Helen Dolphin MBE for making this project happen.

As many will be aware a key focus of our council is the continued professional development of individuals working in our sector and to this end, we recently launched BPA Advance.

This new professional development membership is designed to support our parking community and its employees, both public and private sector, through training, wellbeing, mentoring and more. This is our fastest growing membership type, offering exceptional value and as a not-for-profit organisation we will continue to invest and drive forward a culture of professional development. BPA Advance is already helping members with training, compliance, and ongoing professional development.

Safer parking

Journeys often begin and end in a car park. Safer Parking Scheme integration will show people the safest route and the most secure car parks to assist with journey planning. The Safer Parking Scheme is a success story that goes from strength to strength. It has recently been extended to include Park Mark Freight, a dedicated accreditation aimed at raising standards in truck and freight parking facilities and has received great support from the Department for Transport, the Road Hauliers Association, the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service and more.

I would like to recognise supporters who help us maximise the impact of our events and initiatives. Over the last year, DCBL’s support has enabled us to develop a technology solution to raise awareness of the Safer Parking Scheme to the extent that we are now able to share, via an API, safer parking data with parking app providers and will soon be able to identify Park Mark sites on parking apps.

In conjunction with our work supporting the government’s Tackling Violence against Women and Girls campaign, we are joining forces with our police networks to feature Park Mark car parks on apps like Walksafe, an app where people who feel vulnerable can pre-plan a route to either their home, or to a parked vehicle. The app will then alert partners, friends, family – whoever they nominated – if they have deviated from their planned route.

Success and succession

I would like to pay tribute to all of my predecessors in this role and will strive to ensure that I use my year as president just as effectively as they did. I have an opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants and play my part to help as our sector continues to evolve. Let’s look at the achievements of my predecessor, Jade Neville, for her valued input, not only over the past 12 months as president, but in the many years before that. Jade has been an incredible ambassador for the sector and has embraced the mantle and the presidential chain of office, as she does in everything else, with positivity, enthusiasm, and passion. Jade is a shining example of what can be achieved when you set your mind to it and I am grateful for her support. She achieved so much in raising awareness for tackling violence against women and girls as well as many other initiatives. This work needs to continue. And congratulations to Richard Walker on his election to vice president. Richard is an asset to the industry and a major contributor to the BPA and industry as a whole and I look forward to working with him over the next year. And I extend thanks to BPA staff team have been helping me prepare for the presidency.

Stuart Harrison is president of the British Parking Association www.britishparking.co.uk

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