Parking Review Issue 376

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Awards Special | #376

www.parkingreview.co.uk

PARKING PA RKING SUPERSTA SUPERSTAR R Vass Constantinides named Rising Star at the British Parking Awards 2023 PA R K I N G • T R A F F I C • K E R B S I D E

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Making Complex Parking Processes Simple.

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WELCOME AWARDS SPECIAL | #376

The British Parking Awards are the highlight of the sector’s social calendar

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

The winner is... the world of parking

The British Parking Awards is a celebration of excellence

T

he British Parking Awards were founded by Parking Review magazine in 2002 to honour excellence in the design, operation and management of parking. Over the past 21 years, the awards ceremony has become firmly established as the highlight of the sector’s social calendar. This year, 650 people gathered at the Royal Lancaster London to enjoy fine food, a fantastic film show, a Beatles soundtrack, much networking and excellent entertainment provided by the beloved broadcaster and comedian Mark Steel.

One brilliant thing about organising the awards is that I get to read through all the entries, so I know just how many great stories there are to tell in the sector. The short list was whittled down from a list of over 120 entries by a jury of experts who are truly passionate about parking. In all, 25 trophies were awarded in recognition of the dedicated, and often inspiring, work done by teams, partnerships and individuals working across the on-street and off-street realms in both the public and private sectors. So, while not every person or organisation could receive a trophy, it is no platitude to say that being named a finalist is a real achievement.

I hope that you enjoy this special awards edition of Parking Review, and I look forward to writing about many of the entrants over coming months.

Mark Moran Editor

Parking Review online: www.parkingreview.co.uk

cdergroup.co.uk PARKING REVIEW | 3

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

CONTENTS

Team of the Year: Hackney Council

06 08 10 12 15 17 32 56

Celebrating excellence The 21st British Parking Awards 2023 celebrated excellence and achievement across the sector, writes Mark Moran

We work well together MiPermit founder Paul Moorby and British Parking Association chair Anjna Patel paid tribute to parking family members

Mark hits the parking spot The British Parking Awards’ host Mark Steel shared his many amusing driving mishaps and parking misadventures

A view from the jury room British Parking Awards jury member David Peach provides an insight into how entries are judged and the winners selected

Paul Moorby OBE

Look here, it’s good to share!

A look at how the winners of British Parking Awards trophies shared news of their success on social media

British Parking Awards 2023 The Winners: We tell the fascinating stories of the successful schemes, teams and individuals in words and pictures

Picture perfect A photographic portrait of the British Parking Awards 2023 – a day of conversation, good food, laughter and celebration

EVolution Awards 2023 Landor LINKS’ zero-emission vehicle infrastructure competition recognises innovative work being done by the parking sector

Editorial Managing editor: Mark Moran Tel: 020 7091 7871 mark.moran@landor.co.uk Deputy editor: Deniz Huseyin Tel: 020 7091 7872 deniz.huseyin@landor.co.uk Editorial director: Peter Stonham

Anjna Patel MBE

Production and design production@landor.co.uk Advertising, sponsorship, marketing and exhibition packages Jason Conboy Tel: 020 7091 7895 jason@landor.co.uk

Subscriptions Christina Pierre Tel: 020 7091 7959 subs@landor.co.uk Accounts Irina Cocks Tel: 020 7091 7854 irina.cocks@landor.co.uk Managing Director Rod Fletcher Tel: 0191 280 1410

Parking Review was launched in 1989 and is published twelve times a year. It is the only independent magazine dedicated to the UK parking sector.

Mark Steel

Published by: Landor LINKS Ltd, Apollo House, 359 Kennington Lane, London SE11 5QY © Landor LINKS Ltd 2023

The Independent Press Standards Organisation www.ipso.co.uk

www.landor.co.uk

The Professional Publishers Association www.ppa.co.uk

ISSN: 0962 3599 Printed by: Pensord 1 Goat Mill Road, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 3TD

Registered members of:

PARKING REVIEW | 5

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Celebrating excellence The 21st British Parking Awards celebrated a sector that keeps our world moving, writes competition co-founder Mark Moran Over 650 people attended the 21st anniversary edition of the British Parking Awards, which took place at the Royal Lancaster London on 15 September. The winners were revealed in a ceremony hosted by the much loved comedian and broadcaster Mark Steel, ably assisted by voiceover artist Roger Tilling who narrated the impressive digital stageshow that was created by the events team at Landor LINKS. There were three types of trophy: the classic glass trophy presented to the competitive category winners and recipients of special awards such as the Lifetime Achievement; the Parking Rosettes presented for Connected Parking, School Streets and Safer Places; and the EVolution Awards for the provision of electric vehicle infrastructure.

This year’s parking awards ceremony coincided with Park(ing) Day, an international festival that sees kerbsides converted into ‘parklets’ that can be used for all manner of activities, other than parking a car!

We next gather at the Royal Lancaster on 13 September 2024. Yes, it’s a Friday the 13th! But the British Parking Awards 2024 will be definitely be lucky for some!

Mark Steel

Telling stories

Mark Moran

6 | THE WINNERS

A funny thing happened on the way to the car park… The British Parking Awards 2023 were presented by the Sony and Writers’ Guild Award-winning comedian Mark Steel, presenter of the much loved BBC radio series Mark Steel’s In Town.

He said: “Thank you so much to all of you for being here and, well, it’s not that much of an achievement on your part, it’s just a way of getting out of the office for one day! But seriously, coming here as an outsider I think it is just brilliant that so many people have such a passion and care and love for their industry.”

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

The Winners Parking Person of the Year Karen Day

Rising Star Award Vass Constantinides

Parking Team of the Year Hackney Council Parking Enforcement Team

Outstanding Car Park Operator Durham County Council and NSL

The Back Office Award WSP

The Front Line Award Resmije Zeka

The Voice of God (and parking) Did you know the Voice of God is called Roger? Roger Tilling is one of the most well-known and trusted voices on British television. He has been the voice of BBC’s University Challenge since 1997, and has narrated countless television and radio shows, including the Royal Variety Performance, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Top Gear. And now he is the official voice of the British Parking Awards.

Parking Technology Award Systems Barbour Logic Projects London Borough of Haringey

Parking Partnerships Lambeth Council

Parking in the Community PayByPhone

Communication Award Hackney Council

The Car Parks Best New Car Park New Market Parking, Chester Railway North Multi-Storey Car Park, Stevenage Riverside Sunderland

Best Hospital Car Park Dorset County Hospital Multi-Storey Car Park, Dorchester

Car Park Renovation Award Bath Podium Parking

The camera crew

EVolution Awards

The British Parking Awards were photographed by the team at Matthew Walker Photography and Image Works. They have also created a series of short films celebrating the day. Besides an overview of the event for the official awards website, each winner was interviewed backstage and can be found on the Landor LINKS Live YouTube channel.

EV Champion of the Year APCOA UK

EV Chargepoint Provider Q-Park

EV Technology Award 3ti – Papilio3 Solar Car Park

Parking Rosettes School Streets Hackney Council

Safer Spaces London Borough of Waltham Forest working with NSL and the Metropolitan Police

Connected Parking Kent County Council – The Park Map Project

Special Awards MiPermit Inspiration Award Islington Council & Smart Transport Hub

Top Marks Landor LINKS’ events coordinator Mark Luker and Parking Review’s editor Mark Moran entertain this year’s guest host Mark Steel during rehearsals.

Lifetime Achievement Award Gary Osner

Special Jury Award Institution of Structural Engineers

THE WINNERS | 7

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Paul Moorby OBE

The times they are a-changin’ MiPermit founder Paul Moorby OBE looked to the future of the parking sector

T

he British Parking Awards have reflected the ever evolving nature of the UK parking scene over the past 21 years, so it seemed appropriate that transformation was a central theme of Paul Moorby OBE’s introduction to the event. Moorby is the co-founder and chief executive of Chipside, who is an active ambassador for the UK technology sector on the international stage and closely involved in a number of regional development initiatives.

Moorby used his keynote address at the awards ceremony to recognise the excellent work done by hard-pressed public sector parking teams: “I want to pay tribute to the local authorities running parking across the UK. You can’t make things squeak much more. The budget cuts that you’re seeing have been brutal for well over 15 years now, and they are likely to continue. I say to the suppliers, to the technologists, to the inventors, to the forethinkers here today, please let’s all get together and give a round of applause to the local authorities in this room.”

Moorby reflected on how the parking sector has embraced concepts such as career development and is working to diversify its workforce. “One of the things that we have worked hard in our industry is to get women through the glass ceiling,” he said.

We are family Anjna Patel MBE, chair of the British Parking Association and principal officer at Sandwell Council, made everyone feel valued “The parking sector is my family. I have grown with you. I am very, very proud of you all. But you are not recognised by the general public or the government for how you rose to the challenge and kept the country going.

“During lockdown, every Thursday most of us stood on the doorsteps and clapped the National Health Service and others.

But nobody stood on the doorstep to appreciate what you were all doing – making sacrifices, delivering parcels, keeping the country moving. So I would like you to put your hands together and give a big round of applause for yourselves.

“And I would like to thank you all for making the British Parking Awards such a success. We are celebrating 21 years of the awards, so a round of applause for Mark Moran and the Landor LINKS team.”

Anjna Patel MBE

8 | THE WINNERS

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“I am delighted to see lots more women in senior positions. But I think you’ll agree there’s much more to do.”

Moorby shared his concerns about how people could be priced out of driving, and so lose access to the personal mobility that has driven economic growth for decades.

“Change is coming to the parking industry,” he predicted.

“You may know that there is an argument that we have reached peak car, peak people, peak opportunity. I want to say I don’t necessarily believe that. In actual fact, I don’t believe we’ve reached peak car.

“I have said many times on many stages across the world, that the car – personal mobility – has driven individual social wealth to the greatest heights the United Kingdom has ever seen. There is much, much more to do. I would urge every policymaker in this room to battle hard, to fight hard against people, who quite simply want to ban the car. The pace of change in the next 10 years through the climate emergency is going to hit us all incredibly hard. It’s going to take all of our combined brains. I urge everybody, particularly people talking to government, that the climate emergency is real.

“There is an alternative to just simply pricing cars off the road. But what I will predict right now there are two significant threats. The first one is the digital sales tax. If you’ve moved away from cash into digital, there is a proposal at the World Trade Organization that potentially means every digital transaction receives VAT. That is a no-no for persuading the public to adopt digital.

“The second threat is quite simply that you mustn’t, I urge, make the car elitist. There are people like me, born and bred in Grimsby, with not a penny to my name, who used the car to get to where I am today. And there are many people in rural society that need that car to take part in urban life. We need to make sure that the non-carbon alternatives are affordable. So please, if you’re designing systems, if you’re designing apps, please help me and let’s make sure that we keep the car affordable.”

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Just as the British Parking Awards are celebrating a major anniversary, so too is Chipside, which was launched 20 years ago. Chipside is the developer of the MiPermit service, which is the headline sponsor of the awards Speaking after the event, Moorby said: “Chipside was founded in 2003 with a founding principle of partnership. Without our suppliers, without our team, we’d be nothing. That’s what drives Chipside. We here today because our customers urged us to form Chipside. It is important to say that I am nothing without my team, my fellow founders and the support of our customers, many of which have been there for the whole 20 years since our founding. What a journey so far – there’s more to come! Thank you to one and to all.”

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THE WINNERS | 9

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Mark Steel

The fine art of parking Mark Steel shared tales of his driving and parking misadventures... and the joy of working with Mark Moran

T

he sheer brilliance of the British Parking Awards was recognised by Mark Steel, who hosted the 2023 ceremony. The comedian and author pointed out this is one of the world’s premier awards. “This isn’t one of those meaningless awards, like the Oscars and Wimbledon, where you win trophies that are just completely pointless and people just throw away, this is the British Parking Awards!

“And what a marvellous idea to have a whole day of a year dedicated to the motoring industry that quite responsibly starts by encouraging everyone to get pissed from midday!

“I really like the idea of the lovely little touch that this event could easily have got somewhere that was a big place, all summery.

But rather than that gets somewhere that has a really low ceiling, is really stuffy with everybody having to leave every five minutes, so as to reassemble the lower floor of a multi-storey car park. I think that’s a wonderful touch.

“What other rude notes have I made? This is a great day for the British motorist today, isn’t it? This is marvellous. They can park where they like as you’re all fucking here!”

Our host talked about how does a lot driving as part of recording his beloved BBC Radio series Mark Steel’s In Town. “But I have to confess because I know that a lot of these awards are going to be about new technology and innovations in the car parking industry, and I am hopeless with that,” he admitted.

“There’ll be someone in here who has designed apps that I have stood there outside me car on the phone with the car parking app, listening to the message that goes: ‘Before you can download the app, make sure that isn’t covered by the other 243 apps you’ve also had to download. Before we can begin please press or key your 19 digit PIN number, which must contain three Japanese letters and two recipes for basmati rice. Now save the code again, but in a Wolverhampton accent!’ And usually after 40 minutes, I think all the shops are shut so I’ll just drive home.”

10 | THE WINNERS

It is not only apps that frustrate him. The cleverer cars become, the more annoying they get. “I find all the new technology around driving so confusing,” he shared. “This is the most difficult thing for me: computers in cars. This should be a brilliant thing shouldn’t it. And in some ways it is. But the people who want to put computers in cars, they are just over-zealous.

“The beeping! Everything beeps. My car is a Volvo. It drives me mad. As soon as you sit in it: ‘Bip, bip, bip, bip! You want more air in your tyres’. I only did it yesterday… ‘Want a bit more. Bip, bip, bip, bip! Want more oil’. But I did that yesterday… ‘Want more. Bip, bip, bip, bip! Sit up straight. Bip, bip, bip, bip! Comb your hair. Bip, bip, bip, bip!’

“And then there’s reversing one, which could be useful, couldn’t it? In fact, when it comes to actually parking the car it has taken all the skill out of it really. That was the big male thing when I was a kid. Once you were 18 if you couldn’t park your car in a space that was smaller than the car! But now, when you start reversing my car is ‘Boop! Boop! Boop!’ And I am thinking, what, there is nothing! There is a fence that is about half a mile away.

What’s the matter, I thought there was a goat trapped under the car. ‘Boop! Boop! Boop!’ We could be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and it would be going ‘Beep, beep, beep, beep! You are too near Australia!’

“I am well qualified to give out these awards, aren’t I!” Mark Steel also shared how he had prepared for the awards with my, er, help. “Do you all know all know Mark who arranges this and edits the magazine? I have only known him a few hours, but he is great. He loves car parks. I have never met anyone who is so fond of car parks. He was on the phone to me. I was just supposed to talk to him for about 10 minutes about where to go.

“Four hours later… ‘And it’s International Parking Day… which is marvellous… and they are going have one in Venezuela soon… anyway, there is a very interesting multi-storey in Bracknell that they’re having to knock down unfortunately, but maybe you could go and investigate that… there’s lots of articles on the website…’ “No, but really, Mark’s lovely, what a lovely man.

“Thank you for inviting me to present the awards. I hope that what I am paid for this pays about three months of my parking fines.”

Thank you Mark from Mark.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

A view from the jury room David Peach shares his experience of being an awards judging panel member

F

or everyone that took part in the British Parking Awards in London on 15 September, it was a fun and glitzy occasion bringing together so many people from across the sector. I’ve been given permission to share a little of what’s involved in making these awards happen, now having celebrated their 21st anniversary.

I was honoured this year to be invited as a judge on the panel for the British Parking Awards. I agreed willingly, while being a little apprehensive about what might be involved.

Judges, in pairs or threes, are allocated one of 19 categories to judge. Every judge chooses their approach to scoring, but most choose a numeric approach to allow comparison between their partner judges and the rest of the panel.

In principle that all sounds straightforward and my fellow category judge and I chose a numeric approach with each of us scoring independently initially. However, with each entry being judged against 29 criteria (in our category) it was critical that each entry was absorbed completely before then scoring them against each of the criteria.

From this first stage my fellow judge and I then met on Teams to go through each entry and compare views. The result of this exercise was a further review, a second meeting and then a consolidated score sheet on which we were both agreed. From this and the other judge’s scores a shortlist is created and publicised by Mark Moran in the build-up to the awards.

The final stage of the judging process involved an all-day face to face meeting with the entire judging panel. Each of the category judges presents their findings to the panel and the views and scores are critiqued to arrive at a consensus view.

There was generally agreement at this stage among the judges, but inevitably some differences of opinion that lead to engaged debate and alternative views.

I can honestly say I felt a lot of responsibility for my part in the proceedings and I know that was shared by all the other judges. The entire panel – representing a cross-section of the parking sector, different backgrounds and different areas of expertise – were wholly engaged and keen to ensure fair play and detailed scrutiny.

For anyone who ever doubted the thoroughness of the process, rest assured, the process is rigorous!

And therein is the importance of the awards. The quality of the entries is incredibly high with every entrant justifiably proud of their submissions. The judging panel brings together a wealth of expertise and experience so that being shortlisted is, in its’ own right, an accolade.

But, of course, there can generally only be one winner, although one category was so closely matched that it was literally impossible to separate them. Every winner can be justifiably proud of their efforts and their award. It is no mean feat to get to that point and the award is justly deserved.

I spoke to a few people at the awards that felt they may have had a good potential entry but were a bit too bashful to put it forward. Having seen the process from the inside I’d strongly urge anyone, whether personally or as an organisation to enter.

There’s a broad range of categories and it was clear from the entries that everyone gained a huge amount from taking part.

I look forward to seeing your entries 2024!

David Peach is managing director of Workflow Dynamics

12 | THE WINNERS

British Parking Awards jury Entries to the British Parking Awards are assessed by a jury drawn from across the parking, transport and motoring sectors.

There were over 120 entries to the 2023 competition, plus a series of nominations for special awards such as those for the Lifetime Achievement and ‘Parking Rosettes’.

The judges Chair and organiser: Mark Moran, editor, Parking Review Jason Benjamin, independent consultant Harry Clarke, director, Arlander John Elliott, Local Government Technical Advisers Group (TAG) Mark Frost, director, Fern Consulting Elisabeth Gilliard, independent management consultant and vice president, Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport (CILT) Phil Grant, principal, Professionals in Parking Nick Lester-Davis, director, Nick Lester-Davis Consulting Mike Marrs, independent consultant John McArdle, independent consultant Chris Naylor, membership and operations manager, IPC Paul Necus, independent consultant Angela O’Shea, independent consultant Laura Padden, director, PATROL Anjna Patel MBE, parking professional and chair, BPA Andrew Potter, director, Parking Perspectives Mark Potter, director, Potter Church & Holmes Architects Manny Rasores de Toro, principal, MR Parking Consultancy Kelvin Reynolds, director of policy & public affairs, BPA Mahmood Siddiqi, past president, Local Government Technical Advisers Group (LGTAG) and CiHT technical champion Richard Talbot, director, The Railway Consultancy Steve Thompson, independent consultant

The experts’ experts Mark Moran, editor of Parking Review and jury chair, said: “One of the reasons that the British Parking Awards trophies are so coveted is that from the competition’s inception the winners have been selected by an independent jury. The judges assess, discuss, argue over and then agree on the shortlist and eventual winners in a series of meetings that are in themselves truly fascinating and informative.”

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Look here, it’s good to share!

Celebrating the British Parking Awards on social media

THE WINNERS | 15

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T he Winne innerrs

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

We work well together

Hackney Council’s Parking Enforcement Team: Nazir Pathan, Devendra Thakor, Halil Kucuk, Paul Moorton, Taqveem Siddiqui, Chirstos Makris, Genesio De Costa, Eloise Grimes, Michael Wiktorko, Edwin Muir, Kevin Keady, Samir Hasanagic, Gossica Anichebe, Fazal Kirwan, Michael Oskys, Kehinde Okubule, Sheriffdeen Akinshipo, Andra Stoian and Gulgun Chelikhan

Parking Team of the Year Hackney Council Hackney Council’s Parking Enforcement Team is going above and beyond in trialling new ways of working that would benefit the staff and the community. This was recognised in the fact that the London borough was the recipient of three trophies at the British Parking Awards 2023.

Hackney’s pioneering approach to School Streets was recognised with a Parking Rosette for a programme of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and School Streets that shows what needs to be replicated nationwide to tackle the climate crisis and get more people walking and cycling.

Hackney’s consultation and engagement campaign for its Parking Enforcement Plan (PEP) won the Communication Award.

While many boroughs see only a few hundred responses to strategic documents, Hackney’s approach saw over 8,000 people give their views, which led to a number of substantial changes in the finalised proposals.

And the council’s Parking Enforcement Team was named Team of the Year. The Parking Enforcement Team is a brand new team within Hackney Council’s Parking Services. It was established in April 2022 following the service being brought back in-house from an external provider that had won the contract back in 1999. The insourcing has followed the council’s political ambition to bring all outsourced services back in-house where possible.

Following the large and complex insourcing process, the over 100 staff workforce have undergone a complete restructure, with changes implemented to improve the performance, work-life balance and customer service to road users.

The Parking Enforcement Team is responsible for all aspects of the council’s parking response, this includes on-street and offstreet parking enforcement, CCTV enforcement of moving traffic, parking and bus lane restrictions, enforcement of abandoned

18 | THE WINNERS

and untaxed vehicles along with enforcement support team which provides the back office support for the front facing teams.

Michael Wiktorko, service area manager for parking enforcement at London Borough of Hackney, says: “Front line parking enforcement is one of the most challenging working environments in the country. The industry has a very difficult task in recruiting and retaining staff due to the difficulties faced in the role. That is why Hackney Parking Enforcement Team is trialling new ways of working that would benefit the staff and the community.”

Re-branding civil enforcement officers Hackney Council has rebranded the civil enforcement officer (CEO) role to become the ‘Road & Traffic Enforcement Officer’.

The role continues to carry out the statutory duty of a CEO under the Traffic Management Act 2004, but the officers are now the “eyes and ears” of the council, ensuring that problems such as vandalism, fly-tipping, graffiti, uncollected waste, anti-social behaviour and other problems are reported promptly to the relevant team in the borough to speed up the council’s response.

“This approach significantly improves the response time of the relevant team as the council no longer only relies on residents and businesses to report such issues,” says Wiktorko. “To reflect the new approach, the Road & Traffic Enforcement Officer role has undergone a major uniform overhaul. The new uniform provides better comfort for officers by being more durable, easier to wash and more suitable for working in different weather conditions, as there are different uniforms for each season.”

Over the years Hackney Council had been seeing an increase in verbal and physical abuse of its front line enforcement officers.

This problem increased during the challenging times of COVID19 lockdowns. In 2020 Hackney carried out an engagement with all its staff to find out about their experiences. The most shocking finding was that the majority of officers felt that it was part of their job and that such attacks are normal and something they just need to accept. Some attacks received media attention and

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS police investigation, but some went unnoticed. “We saw officers being attacked and ending up in hospital,” says Wiktorko.

Following a number of informal engagement sessions with the public as part of the council’s Parking Enforcement Plan engagement sessions it became clear that there was well established stereotype that civil enforcement officers have targets to issue penalty charge notices (PCNs), and are only there to issue parking tickets and do not want to help drivers or residents.

The new uniforms and duties of Road & Traffic Enforcement Officers were implemented from mid-2022 to fight that stereotype and set a new standard for customer service. “We have developed new internal procedures to ensure that staff do not tolerate such behaviour under any circumstances as this is NOT normal and MUST NOT be accepted,” says Wiktorko. “We have introduced a series of engagement sessions and a ‘no tolerance’ approach to abuse of our front line staff. Each report was taken seriously and escalated through every possible avenue, for example, we have reported cases of residents from social housing attacking and abusing our staff to be issued a final warning of eviction from council properties which prompted some residents to write a letter of apology to the enforcement officer.

“We commenced enforcement of Regulation 10 penalty charge notices, also known as Vehicle Drove Away (VDAs) to discourage the attacks and abuse in the hope of avoiding getting a PCN. Finally, we have also started to include the supporting material from video badges to the cases that were going to independent adjudication with some outstanding results.”

Tackling nuisance vehicles Hackney has created a new Nuisance Vehicle Team to tackle abandoned, cloned, stolen, untaxed and other types of nuisance vehicles. The team conducts targeted patrols to areas most in need, which has not been done in decades, relying on information from the community, working closely with residents and councillors, aided by a newly introduced abandoned vehicle policy Inspections and investigations are being carried out within five working days, with any abandoned vehicle appearing to be worth less than £1,000 being issued with a destruction notice.

Wiktorko says: “This robust approach has seen hotspot location complaints decrease, air polluting vehicles removed and destroyed and a real improvement in the quality of life promised to our residents. This approach has been welcomed by residents and the local media. With over a 100 abandoned vehicles and 300 untaxed vehicles removed in the last 12 months, Hackney Council has shown a real determination to declutter its streets and free up parking spaces for its residents.”

Before introducing enforcement using CCTV in certain Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) the patrol officers are deployed to raise the awareness and inform the drivers about the upcoming restrictions being enforced by CCTV to avoid drivers becoming aware of the enforcement by getting a PCN. Wiktorko says: “Enforcement officers were deployed to hotspot locations where a large number of vehicles were seen idling where prohibited.

Instead of taking a strict enforcement approach by issuance of a PCN – officers started handing out leaflets to inform drivers. This has been received very positively by the drivers.”

Local knowledge, community support Hackney has been expanding the use of controlled parking zones (CPZs) over the past decade, moving from 64% coverage in 2011/12 to 100% in 2022/23.

Hackney Council has been split into three districts with regards to parking enforcement. The officers are deployed in their district all the time and are not rotated between different locations at random or rotational basis. This ensures that they build local knowledge, provide community support and act as the face of the Hackney Council by providing further information about parking restrictions, permits, processes and consultations.

This allows the council to train the officers with more bespoke information specific to their district as opposed to training on all issues and changes in the council. It enables the officers to know the locations that are normally compliant and locations where there is a higher chance of driver’s being aggressive. “Where the

School Streets Timed traffic restrictions

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locations are more problematic then the officers are paired up or deployed in a full team of six. This knowledge has further contributed to the reduction in abuse received by officers as they are no longer deployed alone,” says Wiktorko.

The Road & Traffic Enforcement Officers are also undergoing extensive training in Action Counters Terrorism. This enables them to assist in detecting hostile reconnaissance, helping solve serious crime and preventing terrorist attacks.

Changes that work The uniform change, provision of support, better training and taking strong action against those deciding to attack or abuse frontline staff are actions helping improve staff morale and retention. The new look Road & Traffic Enforcement Officers also benefit from a new 4-day working week that supports the work-life balance. “It offers five consecutive days off every three weeks to provide the much deserved break from the challenging job in all weather conditions. This improves the service delivery by providing better coverage of the on-street parking restrictions in the borough,” explains Wiktorko.

“In July 2022 we carried out the very first staff survey and only saw an engagement rate of 53%. With only half of the staff feeling motivated in their job. In a short period of time, at the end of the year, we carried out another survey asking the same questions and have seen a significant increase, with the engagement rate going up to 70% and significantly improved morale, as now over 75% of staff felt motivated in their job.

“The last survey showed very positive results with a few areas where continued improvement was needed. At the heart of the changes we have made are three simple service promises that we ensure all staff work towards (as opposed to complicated wording or words that have great meaning according to the dictionary, but are difficult to understand or relate to in a day-to-day work): provide fair outcomes for customers; get things done ‘right first time’; and simplify and continually improve our processes.”

Jury comment The Hackney Parking Enforcement Team is pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in the parking industry and often sets a standard for other councils to follow.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

An engaging approach

Mark Wilson of Unity5 (sponsor) with Hackney’s Kevin Keady, Gossica Anichebe, Michael Benn, Eloise Grimes and Mark Steel

Communication Award Hackney Council Extensive engagement and consultation with residents, businesses and stakeholders has refined the London Borough of Hackney’s parking strategy.

Hackney Council’s new Parking and Enforcement Plan (PEP) was adopted by the council’s cabinet in October 2022. The 5-year plan sets a new direction of travel for the borough, with a much stronger emphasis on improving air quality and reducing CO2 emissions. The PEP also re-imagines the use of kerb space to support sustainable and active travel, built around five key visions: 1. Supporting the creation of sustainable streets for everyone, by re-prioritising more kerbside space to support greening the borough, and sustainable transport 2. Providing high quality, customer-focussed services that respond to the needs of residents, businesses and visitors 3. Encouraging motorists to choose active travel and sustainable travel options, a switch to cleaner vehicles with a reduction in private vehicle ownership 4. Consolidating a fair, proportionate and transparent enforcement service to deliver high levels of compliance, and robustly tackle fraud 5. Delivering a consistent approach to parking products and services on all council-managed estates.

From the outset, one of Hackney’s main priorities was to maximise engagement with the public on its proposals, not only in terms of the number of respondents, but also in ensuring that it heard from as wide a range of people as possible by using a variety of outreach methods. The PEP consultation campaign focussed on Award sponsored by

encouraging residents to participate in a consultation that gave them the opportunity to guide decisions on parking-related policy for the next five years.

The council began by producing a comprehensive campaign brief, which set out the key campaign proposition, target audiences, timeframes, risks, evaluation measures and milestones, as well as the top line messages, and activities that it planned to deliver. The campaign objectives were: • To educate customers about the Parking and Enforcement Plan consultation • To have a high response rate for the consultation • To build support for the council’s vision and objectives • To receive public input for the recommendations, as considering public feedback is part of the PEP review process • To raise awareness and buy-in for parking services, with a larger focus on air quality and sustainability.

The scope of the campaign was designed to achieve maximum engagement with key stakeholders using multiple communication channels, such as direct communication (letter, email, phone and meetings) and media (print, online and socials). The critical stakeholder groups included, but were not limited to, estate residents, disability groups, health and care organisations and council staff. Other groups consulted included the wider residential community, local businesses and visitors to the borough.

The campaign approach proved to be successful. While many boroughs see only a few hundred responses to strategic documents, Hackney’s communications approach saw over 8,000 people give their views, across a 13-week consultation in summer 2021, and a further three-week listening exercise in summer 2022, which contributed to a number of substantive changes in the finalised proposals.

Jury comment Implementing progressive parking and traffic management policies requires the support of the communities they are designed to benefit, and the cooperation of organisations that may be affected. Hackney Council’s approach to public consultation has been exemplary.

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Michael Wiktorko, Kevin Keady, Devendra Thakor and Michael Oskys

A lesson in safer streets School Streets Award Hackney Council The London Borough of Hackney has implemented an ambitious active travel programme in an effort to tackle transport emissions. A key programme has been School Streets, which close roads outside schools at opening and closing times.

A quarter of CO2 emissions in Hackney are generated by road transport, despite a low car ownership of 30%. Motor vehicles are also a significant contributor to local air pollution. By 2019, motor traffic in the borough drove 40 million miles more than it did in 2013. In line with London-wide trends, most of this rise was borne by unclassified neighbourhood roads, which take the same volume of traffic as main roads. Alongside these trends, lockdown rules meant people were spending more time locally.

Given 70% of households in Hackney do not own a car, Hackney Council decided to take action to support people to walk, cycle and take public transport and thus prevent a car-led recovery from the pandemic. Reducing motor transport use is seen as essential if Hackney is to meet both local and nationwide net zero targets.

In September 2020, Hackney launched a programme to reclaim street space for people, aimed at: • Encouraging walking and cycling in the pandemic and beyond • Tackling air pollution • Preventing ‘rat-runs’ on neighbourhood roads • Preventing a car-led recovery from the pandemic, where caruse rose beyond historic levels • Catalysing the long-term downward shift in car ownership in Hackney, helping to reduce emissions.

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Since then, Hackney has introduced 48 School Streets, which close roads outside schools at opening and closing times. Residents living in the school street, cyclists, waste vehicles and emergency services can pass through closures, which are camera-enforced.

Legislatively, School Streets schemes are achieved by restricting access to motor vehicles at certain times. All of the School Streets are enforced by CCTV cameras in a mixture of permanent cameras and mobile CCTV vans.

All the schemes have been implemented as trials alongside comprehensive engagement with local residents, including: an online engagement platform with over 20,000 responses; representative polling; and, extensive stakeholder engagement with local community groups. The council responded to early comments on its engagement platform by making changes to School Streets to ensure they work better. This includes a commitment to exempt Blue Badge holders from some restrictions if they required access, for example, disabled children.

Hackney now has more School Streets and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) than any other council nationwide and 84% of the borough’s primary schools participate in a School Streets programme. This has seen traffic reductions and air quality improvements across the borough, increases in walking and cycling rates and improvements in road safety.

In a representative poll of 800 local residents, a quarter reported increasing the amount of walking, running and cycling they do as a result of the LTNs and School Streets. Almost a third of car users report driving less. Data from schools across Hackney shows the number of children walking or cycling to school is up eight percentage points.

Hackney has created a toolkit to support other councils in implementing School Streets in a fair and legal manner. The toolkit has been used as far away as New Zealand and Canada.

Jury comment Hackney Council has been a pioneer of the School Street concept. Its consultative approach to designing, implementing and managing these schemes has led to their acceptance and spread across the borough. And the council has produced an excellent toolkit that shares its learning.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

A charging revolution

Jimi Ogunyanwo (London Borough of Islington), Nyle Williams and Dan Hanshaw (Smart Transport Hub), Cllr Rowena Champion, Ryan Rodrigues and Rubena Hafizi (LBI), Sara Bailey (The Parking Guru), Tony Ralph (LBI), Christian Constantinides (STH), Paul Moorby OBE (Chipside, sponsor), Vass Constantinides (STH) and Mark Steel

The Inspiration Award Islington Council London is faced with dangerous levels of air pollution, impacting public health, and contributing to climate change.

Road vehicles are the single biggest cause of London’s air pollution, producing nearly half of all nitrogen oxides and particulate matter in the air we breathe, making it crucial to find effective solutions.

The efforts undertaken by Islington Council to reduce carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through its innovative EV permit charging programme demonstrates the borough’s dedicated commitment to delivering transformative action in tackling air pollution and promoting sustainable outcomes. The parking team in Islington has delivered a UK-first parking permit scheme for electric vehicles (EVs), embedding a data-led strategy to achieving cleaner air through the inclusion of hierarchy charging for EVs based on battery size for residential parking permits.

Cllr Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s executive member for environment, air quality, and transport, says: “There’s more that we all can and must do to tackle the climate emergency, especially following the World Health Organization’s decision to set tougher global air pollution targets.”

Islington Council declared a climate emergency in June 2019, recognising the need to drastically reduce carbon emissions in the borough. The council made a pledge to work towards being a net zero borough by 2030, and Census data shows that less than 30% of households in Islington have access to a car. This supports their continued emphasis on addressing car ownership through transport policy directives, promoting public and active travel.

Taking action to address the urgent need to reduce emissions, the team at Islington, led by assistant director of parking Rubena Hafizi, championed by environment director Tony Ralph and Cllr Rowan Champion, partnered with Smart Transport Hub to develop a quantitative hierarchy model specifically for EVs. The parking team was strengthened by The Parking Guru’s Sara Bailey and the council’s transport strategy and parking teams, and they worked together to design the scheme that

22 | THE WINNERS

directly and indirectly reduces pollutant emissions while providing a sustainable solution for promoting cleaner air and aims to reduce demand for road space. This will, in turn, be exchanged for increased green space that serves to improve surface water run-off and reduce the ‘heat island’ effect.

Islington’s Tony Ralph, who has led the project, says: “Islington is a driving force in promoting active travel. This is one of many schemes we have introduced to achieve our ambitions to become a net zero carbon borough and create a cleaner and safer environment for our residents.”

Replacing petrol and diesel vehicles with electric vehicles remains a national and local strategy for improving local air quality by reducing harmful emissions such as nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. Islington has supported its residents in transitioning to electric vehicles by providing an on-street charging infrastructure; crucial as many Islington residents lack off-street parking, making it challenging to charge EVs at home.

While acknowledging the environmental benefits of EVs, Islington also recognises that EVs as motorised vehicles contribute to road congestion, road safety issues and particulate matter (PM). Gov.UK states: “Around half of UK concentrations of PM comes from anthropogenic sources in the UK such as domestic wood burning and tyre and brake wear from vehicles” and “exposure to PM can result in serious impacts to health, especially in vulnerable groups of people such as the young, elderly, and those with respiratory problems”.

One key aspect of the London Borough of Islington’s EV permit charging programme is the model determines emissions-based permit pricing based on battery size, ensuring that EVs are accurately classified and charged accordingly after the team researched different ways in which EVs could be categorised in respect of their impact on the environment. In addition to this the scheme also delivers: • Innovative pricing strategy: Islington has been at the forefront of permit strategies since 2011 when it introduced an emissionsbased system for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

• Streamlined and fair charges: The permit scheme simplifies and aligns charges for both ICE vehicles and EVs, ensuring fairness across the board. By retaining the diesel surcharge,

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS Islington acknowledges the higher impact of diesel emissions compared to petrol vehicles. This strategic approach not only incentivises the adoption of cleaner vehicles but also encourages responsible vehicle choices.

• Equity in cost allocation: Islington has sought to ensure that the permit charging system is equitable for all residents. Previously, surcharges were imposed for permits purchased within a span of fewer than 12 months. Recognising the financial burden this imposed on those who can least afford it, Islington made a progressive move by removing these surcharges. This decision demonstrates the borough’s commitment to fairness and its dedication to making sustainable choices accessible to everyone.

• Minimum permit charges: ICE vehicles pay £100 and it is £50 for EV’s, recognising that even small vehicles and EVs still have a detrimental impact on congestion, road traffic accidents and emissions, and also take up precious public realm space that could more valuably be used for an alternative purpose.

Islington’s EV permit charging programme is an innovative, effective, and sustainable initiative that builds awareness of the need to continue to reduce transport emissions through the incentivisation of moving to sustainable travel options, demonstrates ingenuity in implementation, and provides a replicable model for other towns and cities. By combining supportive policies, equitable infrastructure, renewable energy integration, and community engagement, the team in Islington feel they have set an exemplary standard for achieving cleaner air and reducing carbon and GHG emissions. Rubena Hafizi, Islington’s assistant director of parking services, who led the team on policy design and implementation, says: “Tackling the climate emergency brings huge benefits to all of us – including more pleasant, less polluted streets – and we all have a role to play in achieving this.”

Praise for the project The project has been welcomed by experts from the wider parking and traffic management sector. Nick Ruxton-Boyle, director of environment at Marston Holdings, wrote in his Air Quality News blog: “Well done I say to the parking team in Islington for successfully walking the narrow tightrope between encouraging electric mobility and discouraging larger vehicles.”

Ann Snelson, founder of the consultancy Lead with Sustainability, said: “A massive well done to Rubena Hafizi and Sara Bailey for following through on Islington Council’s clean air, emissions and climate change objectives by reducing car/vehicle use (no matter what type) across the borough. They’ve now become the first council team to introduce parking permits for electric vehicles as well as diesel and petrol ones. The pricing varies by size of battery – so encourages people towards the smallest, most sustainable vehicles.”

Mark Frost, director at Fern Consulting and Hounslow’s former assistant director of parking, transport and environmental strategy, said: “Clearly, Islington officers are right that the larger EVs have a far bigger footprint – literally and in terms of carbon and this should be recognised in policy in some way. This innovative variable tariff, still rewarding the most efficient EVs, whilst highlighting the impact of larger EVs, is potentially an elegant way forward – and I suspect this will be the first of many such schemes.”

Jury comment Islington Council’s EV Hierarchy scheme is an example of exciting and innovative thinking led by a dedicated parking team that consistently shows a dedication to sustainable outcomes and is a model for other towns and cities to follow..

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Cllr Rowena Chapman checks out EV charging

A positive parking policy Cllr Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s executive member for environment, air quality and transport Here in Islington, we’re determined to create a more equal borough, where streets are cleaner, greener, and more sustainable for all. Doing so is crucial in tackling the climate emergency, which is especially important in Islington as we are one of the six London boroughs most susceptible to climate change.

As part of our mission to reimagine streets, we’ve introduced seven low-traffic neighbourhoods, 35 School Streets, and a network of cycleways, to help improve air quality and to make it easier to walk, cycle, and wheel. The huge progress we’ve made is reflected in Islington being recognised as the top-performing inner-London borough in the Healthy Streets Scorecard – which ranks boroughs based on their action to create greener streets – three years in a row.

According to data from the 2021 Census, 33% of households in Islington own a private vehicle – that’s the second lowest of any London borough. It’s yet another reason why reimagining our streets, so that they’re better suited to walking, cycling, and wheeling, is so vitally important.

We’re taking a bold approach to creating a greener borough, and that extends to our parking policy. Last year, we carried out a full review of our parking charges, to support our wider ambitions to encourage local people to switch to sustainable transport, and to ensure that charges more accurately reflect the pollution that they create.

The changes that we’ve made – which were subject to statutory consultation and approval by our executive committee – included: • Introducing Europe’s first multi-band parking permit scheme for electric vehicles, with charges ranging from £50 for a battery size of 1-39kwh, to £140 for vehicles with batteries of 90kwh.

• Bringing in a £1 per day short-stay parking for petrol motorbikes and 50p per day for electric motorbikes, to help encourage residents to take trips on foot, bike, and wheel.

• Introducing a new seven-tier charging system for residentpermits, to simplify the old system.

• Introducing new charges for households wanting to park more than one vehicle on the street.

The ground-breaking element of the changes was the introduction of the hierarchical charges for electric vehicles.

While electric vehicles mostly have less environmental impact than petrol and diesel vehicles, they nevertheless cause pollution through the release of tiny particulates from the brakes and tyres, which can be breathed in and cause harm.

Electric vehicles also contribute to congestion and take up road space, making roads less safe for people who are walking or cycling. Like petrol and diesel vehicles, they also take up valuable parking space, which could instead be devoted to environmentally-friendly measures like greening or tree planting.

The decision to reimagine parking charges in this way is another example of Islington’s forward-thinking approach, and we look forward in seeing the positive benefits it brings in creating more pleasant, less polluted streets for all.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Karen Day receives her trophy from Peter O’Driscoll of category sponsor RingGo and Mark Steel

A passion for parking Parking Person of the Year Karen Day Karen Day has been parking manager at Nottingham City Council since April 2018. She is responsible for the management of over 5,000 parking bays across the city, including three multi-storey car parks, 15 surface car parks and on-street bays.

Nottingham’s parking operation operates 24/7, generates £10.5m per annum from 2.2m transactions and Karen Day runs this successfully with just eight members of staff.

Day has worked in local government for 23 years, the first 18 of which were spent in adult social care where she was a business manager ensuring that the service delivery for social care met the needs of the city’s citizens. She has brought the experience and skillset accumulated in adult social care to parking services. Her colleagues say Day has a great ability to empathise with and understand the needs of customers and adapt the parking operation to ensure it is welcoming to all.

Since Day became parking manager, she has made the quality of the parking experience her main focus. The improvements she has made have resulted in all of Nottingham’s city centre car parks being awarded the Park Mark Safer Parking Award by the British Parking Association. Broad Marsh Car Park has now been awarded Park Mark Plus for its excellence when it comes to customer service and safety.

Inclusivity is a key belief for Day, who regularly meets with the Disability Improvements Group in Nottingham to understand how to make the parking service more accessible. The outcome of this has been that the city’s multi-storey car parks have received Disabled Parking Accreditation from the Disabled Motoring UK for the service provided to customers with accessibility issues.

In 2021 Karen Day’s leadership was recognised at the British Parking Awards with Nottingham City Council’s Parking Services team being joint recipients of the Positive Responses to the Pandemic award. The award recognised that the car parks remained open for critical workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and Day and her team were on site to ensure smooth operation

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for these essential users. She was also instrumental in ensuring they were the first car parks in the UK to apply a coating to the parking machines which actively cleaned them of any bacteria to protect key workers.

In 2022, the Broad Marsh Car Park won Best New Car Park at the British Parking Awards and this is in no small part because of Day’s tireless efforts to prioritise customers from design, through the build and into operation.

Day managed to secure grant funding for a state-of-the-art wayfinding sensor system, 81 EV chargepoints, and 720 solar panels mounted on the roof to power the car park in the day. This work has resulted in a vast improvement to the overall parking provision across Nottingham, as well as ensuring they are fit-forthe-future as electric vehicles become more prevalent.

A key focus for Day this year has been the implementation of mobility hubs in Nottingham City Council’s community car parks in order to offer users access to a combination of travel services, helping interlink sustainable transport provision in the city and encouraging the uptake of alternative travel methods – putting communities at the heart of mobility solutions. The project provides further opportunities to work with local communities on co-designing the hubs, ensuring that they offer services which are accessible and encouraging for everyone; in turn providing confidence that the services provided will be utilised.

Day is keen to build on the relationships she has made in the industry and the local community. The focus of the parking team under Day’s stewardship has been on understanding rather than enforcement. She is keen to look after her customers from the moment they leave their house, through them parking and on to their destination.

An example of this is Day leading on the customer experience on event nights at the Motorpoint Arena. With huge changes to the road traffic network in the south of Nottingham, the return of live events and the opening of Broad Marsh car park all taking place recently, Day and her team have been out on the road network on event evenings doing everything from directing customers to timing traffic flows so that they can then discuss with traffic management colleagues and partners at the Motorpoint Arena how they can improve visitors’ all-round experience.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS Day cares deeply about her staff and is an inspirational leader.

She has developed her team continually over the last five years with many going on to be promoted either within Parking Services or Nottingham City Council. She is also conscious of the need for continual improvement, so has been undergoing training and coaching sessions from the Go M.A.D. Thinking organisation, bringing a different way of thinking and planning to the local authority. Day has always shown an appetite for undertaking selfimprovement to further her ability to help the council deliver its services better. From completing a degree in Public Services Management at Nottingham Trent University while working in Adult Social Care to the work she currently does with the British Parking Association (BPA), she is keen to understand best practice when it comes to service provision so she can implement this in Nottingham.

Since Day came into the parking industry she has found a real passion for it and now sees her long-term future as lying in the sector. She is keen to support others within the industry following her success in Nottingham and was recently elected a member of both the BPA Communications and External Affairs Board and the Business Services and Accreditations Board. She is delighted to be on these boards and provide her expertise to them.

Day is also keen to promote the male-dominated industry to women and is an active member and advocate of the Women in Parking network.

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Jury comment Karen Day’s commitment creation of an exemplary parking operation and continued motivation to seek improvements for her customers and citizens has built a strong business in Parking Services, one that delivers much needed income while also providing a quality, inclusive, service to its users.

Testimonials Emma Lafbery, senior parking business officer, Nottingham City Council Karen Day is an outstanding professional who consistently ensures a seamless and enjoyable parking experience. Karen’s attention to detail and strong organisational abilities shows in every aspect of her work.Karen goes above and beyond as a manager, she leads by example and makes every individual feel valued and respected.

During COVID-19 Karen regularly communicated with the team, to keep us informed about any changes to work arrangements, safety protocols and any Nottingham City Council updates. Karen created a supportive and empathetic environment for anyone who was struggling during the pandemic.

Karen is on the two boards of the British Parking Association. Her dedication, professionalism, and remarkable ability to create an outstanding parking manager makes her an invaluable asset to any organisation. I am grateful for Karen’s help and the positive impact she has on her team.

Shaun Foster, engineer, Parking Services, Nottingham City Council Karen Day is a committed, positive and supportive manager, with a vast knowledge of the parking sector. Karen has developed the team and made our department a very responsive, diverse and self-sufficient department.

This has been achieved by supporting staff in further development and training. Over the last 18 months staff have trained in ground works, line marking, IOSH and IPAFF. We can now deal with any car park issues such as pothole repair, refreshing faded or damaged parking bays, installing and removing parking equipment.

Karen helped lead the successful revamp of the new Broad Marsh car park in the heart of Nottingham. This car park has the most EV parking in Nottingham, which is helping the council work towards lower carbon emissions. Karen supported staff during COVID and made safety a priority, implementing working from home for staff that could, safe distancing, PPE and reduced hours for staff that could not work from home.

I am inspired by Karen’s leadership and look forward to future plans, progress and development of our parking department.

Iain Selbie, director, Apex Parking Apex Parking has successfully worked with Karen over a number of years and seen firsthand not only her passion within her role, but continual aspiration for personal and professional growth, and through that improve the performance of her team and service line. Her appointment to the BPA board a clear indication of her commitment to support and improve our industry.

Karen’s leadership is progressive in several areas: • Not content with the status quo, Karen commissioned and actively sought to be challenged by the private sector to strengthen internal council processes, enhance performance and deliver best value. This is a bold decision to take external analysis and criticism to improve, and not something often actively sought in either the private or public sectors, but done with a clear focus on improvement.

• Early adoption of technology. Through the existing parking equipment provider, Nottingham City Council, under Karen’s leadership, is significantly expanding its product offering and ability to grow, maintain and improve the overall customer offering and relationship. Through ANPR autopay and other products, Nottingham is the forefront of this strategy in the local authority spaces, which is very much driven by Karen.

Nottingham City Council’s parking team outside the Broad Marsh car park

Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Nottingham Panthers IHC has worked with the team at Nottingham Parking Services for several years. Nottingham City Parking Service is our ‘go to’ provider for all our parking needs. The official parking provider to the Nottingham Panthers.

We have always found working with Karen and team so professional and efficient. Our first team members have been extremely well taken care of and the parking is the best in Nottingham, modern clean and very safe.

No problem is too big or small for the management and staff. They are a credit to our great city they’re always willing to offer constructive and informative advice to help with our logistical problems.

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Resmije Zeka

Making a real difference The Front Line Award Resmije Zeka Resmije Zeka works for APCOA UK as part of the parking services team with the London Borough of Lambeth. She began her career with APCOA as a parking attendant in November 2004. Her role then was to ensure the smooth flow of traffic in parking lots, issue parking tickets to violators, and assist customers with parking-related inquiries.

From the outset, Zeka demonstrated a strong work ethic, excellent communication skills and a keen eye for detail during her tenure as a parking attendant. Recognising Zeka’s dedication and exceptional performance, she was promoted to the position of senior civil enforcement officer in August 2008. Zeka has excelled in her position by consistently demonstrating professionalism, leadership skills and a commitment to public safety.

She now supervises a team of civil enforcement officers, provided guidance, training, and support when needed. Zeka has been involved in the development and implementation of new parking policies and procedures, aimed at improving parking enforcement efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Throughout her career, Zeka has shown a deep understanding of parking regulations, exceptional problem-solving abilities, and a customer-oriented approach. Zeka has made significant contributions in Blue Badge fraud detection and prevention, while simultaneously strengthening the relationship between her organisation and Lambeth Council. Recognising the importance of addressing Blue Badge fraud to ensure fair access to parking spaces for individuals with disabilities, Zeka took proactive measures to combat the issue. She conducted investigations, implemented enhanced monitoring techniques, and collaborated closely with Award sponsored by

Lambeth to identify fraudulent activity and apprehend offenders.

Since the start of the Blue Badge operation in October 2022, she has reported and enforced 47 counts of fraud where over 40% have been confiscated leading to prosecution. Zeka’s dedication to combating Blue Badge fraud not only resulted in a significant reduction in fraudulent activities but also garnered the attention and appreciation of Lambeth Council. Her commitment to the cause and her ability to devise innovative strategies to tackle the issue helped reinforce a strong working relationship between APCOA and Lambeth Council.

Zeka actively pursues professional development as a CEO, completing various training programmes to enhance her skills.

These programmes have equipped her with valuable knowledge and expertise, enabling her to excel in her role.

Testimonials Steven Davidson, parking fraud investigation officer at Lambeth Council: “Over the period of years since 2007, I and other colleagues have routinely undertaken joint patrols with Mrs Zeka, and the number of cases generated have remained consistently high. She is without doubt the most productive CEO employed in Lambeth, in locating stolen/lost/cancelled/deceased badges, and in examining and seizing Blue Badges from offenders. Some I have personally witnessed, and others which have been recorded on video, have resulted in Mrs Zeka being assaulted during her duties. I have also been in court when she has given evidence which has been delivered expertly resulting in convictions.”

Brian Deans, supplier relationship officer, Lambeth Council: “Zeka’s dedication to the role of civil enforcement officer has been second to none. Always full of energy, always wanting to share knowledge of what she comes across daily, she manages to make you feel at total ease in her company.”

Jury comment Resmije Zeka has won the respect and friendship of colleagues for the professional and committed approach to parking enforcement. She treats motorists with respect, being courteous, respectful and fair. Her commitment to community engagement is also laudable.

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Vass Constantinides with Mark Steel and Peter Bitten of CPG Construction Products

A parking superstar Rising Star of the Year Vass Constantinides Vass Constantinides is a senior consultant at consultancy Smart Transport Hub. Parking has played a significant role in the development of his career, and he has consistently demonstrated his expertise and leadership in this field.

Constantinides’ career has seen him work at Haringey Council in London and consultancies, including is current role with Smart Transport Hub. He has been involved in projects including the introduction of controlled parking zones, housing estate parking, footway parking reviews, Red Routes and bus lanes, and the development of workplace parking levy proposals.

Constantinides has been instrumental in implementing innovative parking solutions that enhance mobility and ease congestion, ensuring a seamless experience for residents and visitors.

He has shown a strong belief in sustainable transportation and community development that has led to the successful execution of numerous projects that have transformed parking in local areas. When managing consultations, he makes a point of actively prioritising public engagement and community input.

Constantinides is highly regarded by colleagues and clients, who see him as an exceptional individual who has made significant contributions to the parking sector. For example, his involvement in professional organisations such as Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CHIT) showcases his commitment to professional growth and industry advancement.

Testimonials Ruth Du-Lieu, assistant director, Medway Council: “It has been my pleasure to know Vass for a number of years. He is a diligent, Award sponsored by

knowledgeable and committed transport and parking professional who I have come to rely on for advice and guidance. Vass is always willing to assist and go the extra mile. Always approachable and willing to make time to help me. I trust his judgement and always welcome his analytical approach to sorting problems and challenges. He is a true superstar!”

Rubena Hafizi, assistant director, Islington Council: “Vass has an exceptional work ethic that is truly commendable. He approaches every task with meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to excellence that is second to none. His ability to analyse complex parking challenges and devise innovative solutions is truly remarkable. Vass has a deep understanding of the industry and stays abreast of the latest trends and technologies, ensuring that he is always at the forefront of parking management practices.”

Lemuel Danka, traffic management implementation officer, Islington Council: “Vass is a brilliant young engineer whose potential is limitless. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Vass well throughout my three years working with the Islington Estates parking team as the Traffic Management Order implementation officer. He stands out among his peers because of his expertise, passion, and determination. Despite being young, he demonstrates a high degree of professionalism and maturity.

Abraham Otitoju, apprentice consultant, Smart Transport Hub: “I have been managed by Vass over the last year and there has been numerous instances where he has been an invaluable asset to myself, the team and to the wider company. He has a commendable work ethic, drive and integrity. One thing I have observed is he will not submit a piece of work without the highest attention to detail and quality. Vass mentored me throughout the early stages of my career. He has supported my development through constructive training programmes and 1-2-1 personal time. Vass has contributed to my personal success and growth.”

Jury comment Vass Constantinides is an exceptional individual who is already making significant contributions to the parking community. His outstanding work, dedication and unwavering commitment have earned him the respect of his colleagues and peers.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

A life moving forward Gary Osner has been a driving force in developing customerfocussed services in the private parking sector.

Cast your mind back to 1991, Manchester United win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, PC World opens its first branch in Surrey, we lost the wonder that was Freddie Mercury, and Gary Osner takes his first steps into the world of parking.

It was at this time that Osner was asked by APCOA Parking and if he could collect unpaid Excess Charge Notices (ECNs) then priced at £40. He accepted the challenge. Not only did Osner take on an entirely new type of business, he also created and implemented the concept for the cost of collections to be passed onto the motorist.

The concept worked and the idea was pitched to Sureway Parking (now Saba UK) to collect a Notice of Impending Prosecution via the Civil Court. The administration or collection fee was established and subsequently this approach to collections was presented as a solution to the parking industry.

As the parking industry became increasingly important to him, Osner took the opportunity to take an active role focussed on driving up standards, promoting good practice through involvement with the British Parking Association. Osner became a BPA board director and worked with the Operational Services Board to launch the first Approved Operator Scheme code of practice in 2007. He played an integral part in ensuring the code of practice was compliant with the then forthcoming Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) regulations in 2012, and was instrumental in the drafting of the sections of the code relating to parking on private land managed under Railway Byelaws.

The implementation of PoFA in 2012 resulted in the abolition of clamping on private land and with it a new complexity for parking operators. Osner unveiled PCN Parking Services, a company which offered dedicated portals to both operators and motorists allowing each to manage their penalty charge notices (PCNs) effectively. A desire to offer a great customer service for clients and customers alike led to the launch of ZZPS Limited, a notice processing and debt recovery service provider, in 2014.

Over the past decade ZZPS has moved from start-up to become a company undertaking the management of parking charges and penalty notices issued on private land from issue through debt recovery resolution and enforcement for a wide range of clients.

The importance of driving up standards was, and continues to be, import to Osner. He promotes and encourages this starting at his own company level as a corporate sponsor for individual membership of the BPA for all ZZPS employees, providing access to an abundance of training and resources to maximise staff development in addition to the extensive internal training resource. Osner has insisted that all ZZPS employees be qualified through the WAMITAB-CIWM NVQ Level Three in Notice Processing, a companywide standard unique in the parking industry Whilst launching ZZPS into the parking sector, he was elected to the BPA’s Council of Representatives as a member representative for private parking operators. When the BPA Fellowship was launched as the most prestigious grade of individual membership Osner was one of first to be honoured.

Since the enactment of the Parking (Code of Practice) Act in 2019, Osner has worked with his colleagues on the BPA board to respond to consultations launched by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the British Standards Institute.

Award sponsored by

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

Lifetime Achievement Gary Osner

Gary Osner

Testimonials Stuart Harrison, British Parking Association President 2023 and chief strategy officer Intelli-Park: “Gary has committed a huge amount of time to the BPA and wider industry for the benefit of all.

This year he has stepped up to take on the vice-chair responsibilities at the BPA board and has taken on a number of projects which he has handled with expertise. Gary has, for a long time, committed to assisting with a huge number of projects across the industry and always volunteered to drive things forward. He has continuously looked to help new people into governance and include people in industry discussions.”

Derek Millard-Smith, partner, JMW Solicitors LLP: “We have known Gary as a BPA board member, client and as a valued friend for many years. He is a pleasure to work and socialise with. A true team player, focussing on the needs of his team at ZZPS achieving well deserved awards for the business in the process. Gary also invests considerable time supporting the wider overarching needs of the parking sector, working tirelessly to assist the formation of the Parking Code of Practice and ensure essential debt resolution services remain available for all. This includes providing valuable education to those in government and promoting the good practice that he and ZZPS bring.”

Colin Arthur, chief commercial officer of ZZPS, pays tribute to his colleague: “I have worked with Gary since 2009, first at Roxburghe and from setting up ZZPS in 2014. His mentoring skills are exceptional, with Gary’s guidance I have achieved more than I ever thought possible. He has the ability to bring the best out of people regardless of where they are in the business.”

Jury comment Throughout his career Gary Osner has remained humble. Never one to seek personal recognition, he is entirely focussed on team effort and achievement. He is a genuine and down to earth gentleman who is patient and supportive, diplomatic and considerate.

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

PayByPhone’s Kayleigh Horner-Hughes-Seed, Rebecca Maisey, Lisa Bowyer and Adam Dolphin

The joy of caring and sharing Parking in the Community Award PayByPhone As a provider of parking payment services, PayByPhone has demonstrated a strong commitment to community engagement and making a positive impact on the areas in which it operates.

In addition to work on simplifying drivers’ parking experiences, PayByPhone has identified four key areas on which it wants to focus: Our Planet, Your Community, Our People and Your Experience. In 2022, the company asked the PayByPhone UK team to form committees, known as ‘Pillars’, around these four areas. The pillars are teams of two or three people who act as a task force to ensure it is delivering real value in these areas, is holding the business to account and, by communicating results to colleagues, create a sense of pride about working at PayByPhone.

The community engagement projects are driven by a team comprising members from the finance, client management, sales, operations and marketing departments, as well the senior leadership team. The Community Pillar is led by Nihal Kale, data insights manager, who is supported by Rebecca Maisey, PayByPhone’s client director. Nihal Kale says: “Growing up in a tight community myself, it has always been of importance to provide support to my community where I can. I have witnessed community societies show the power of collectiveness and giving a chance to make a positive impact. At PayByPhone the Community Pillar has been built to do exactly this, by connecting with communities to bring change, empower and support where we can.

“Aside from the grounding experience this has given our team it has also benefitted them and enabled them to really test and Award sponsored by

use other skills. Soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. The team worked together to identify a charity that they wanted to support, and they then worked together to raise the funds for the donation.”

Projects the PayByPhone Community Pillar supports include: Keech Hospice Care, Luton: In the spirit of the festive season, PayByPhone UK staff decided to forgo their Secret Santa tradition in favour of donating to Keech Hospice Care, a local adult and children’s hospice that provides care and support to those with life-limiting illnesses. The PayByPhone team purchased a range of presents and personally delivered them for the children and adults who use the hospices, which was a humbling experience for all involved.

Trestle School of Drama, St Albans. This drama school nurtures creativity, mental wellbeing and personal growth through various workshops and sessions. A Community Pillar donation provided sustenance during a 24-hour drama extravaganza.

Community defibrillator, East Ayrshire: As part of the East Ayrshire Council community defibrillator initiative, PayByPhone donated a heated defibrillator and cabinet to The Bunker Gym 2.0, which was in desperate need of this life-saving device.

Harrow Heroes, Harrow: PayByPhone sponsors of an annual event hosted by the London Borough of Harrow that celebrates the exceptional achievements, hard work, and dedication of local individuals and teams.

Changing Lives, Lambeth: PayByPhone is a partner in Lambeth Council’s social value programme. Changing Lives empowers residents with innovative ideas, offering them employment, training and volunteering opportunities. In collaboration with the programme team, the Dynamic label feature within the PayByPhone app promotes Changing Lives across the borough.

Jury comment PayByPhone’s initiatives provide a chance to engage with people the communities, helping reduce confusion and misunderstandings related to parking, leading to a more harmonious relationship between residents, visitors, and parking authorities.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

Delivering safer streets

Jane Sherry, Mehmet Hassan and Anthony Hall (LBWF) with Andrea Jones (Marston Holdings) and Jim Coultrous (Met Police)

Safer Spaces Award London Borough of Waltham Forest with NSL and the Metropolitan Police Over the past 15 years the London Borough of Waltham Forest has developed a close-knit working relationship with NSL. This has moved beyond the traditional client-contractor relationship and formed a real sense of working in partnership towards the same goals.

In 2010 the council also began to work more closely with the Metropolitan Police, resulting in the creation of a formal partnership agreement.

The key objectives of the joint partnership were as follows: • to tackle anti-social behaviour, specifically linked to vehicles • to reassure residents • to remove dangerous or unlawful vehicles from our roads • to create a safer environment for all residents and visitors.

This trinity partnership between Waltham Forest, NSL and the Met has begun to focus more on supporting each other in tackling anti-social behaviour and vehicle crime in the borough, leading to a series of campaigns and initiatives. For example, the Community Matters joint operation resulted in a significant number of penalty charge notices (PCNs) being issued, vehicles being removed, mopeds being seized, and arrests being made.

Another initiative sought to improve the way that vehicles removed to the vehicle pound are dealt with, which has led to the identification of cloned vehicles, the return of stolen vehicles to their rightful owners and the recovery of vehicles linked to Award sponsored by

murder and other serious offence.

As part of the joint operations, the council shared officers and colleagues amongst NSL, Waltham Forest Environmental Services and the Metropolitan Police. The joint operations take place once or twice a week, depending on season and resource availability.

These operations have had very successful outcomes as they are utilising the combined resources and capabilities of the Metropolitan Police and NSL Parking Enforcement as well as NSL DVLA, which includes ANPR technology for untaxed vehicles.

These initiatives have had a positive impact on the safety of residents and visitors to Waltham Forest. The partners seek to respond to new challenges and social issues that have also arisen in recent years. For example, the Community Matters joint operation has helped to reduce the number of moped-related anti-social behaviour incidents in the borough. The rider’s behaviour and violence against women and girls (VAWG) was particularly disturbing. The joint operations with the Metropolitan Police have resulted in a clamp down on these behaviours as well as the seizing of several uninsured mopeds.

Embodying the sense of partnership, Mehmet Hassan, parking manager for Waltham Forest, is also a Special Inspector in the Met. “The impact of these joint operations are immediately apparent and NSL’s support has been essential with these multiagency operations,” he says. “It has gone some way to ensure the safety of the local community and that any such matters are taken seriously. It has also shown the local community that civil enforcement officers do not just issue penalty charge notices but provide valuable support for other community issues as well.”

Waltham Forest, Met and NSL plan to expand the scope of the partnership to include other areas of crime, such as burglary, robbery, and other crimes that involve vehicles.

Jury comment Waltham Forest’s work with NSL and the Met Police is a genuine partnership working towards agreed objectives. This is an inspirational entry, one that will encourage others to adopt similar approaches and bring wider benefits to the parking enforcement sphere.

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GALLERY

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GALLERY

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

NSL’s Keith Hanshaw with Durham’s Jenny Thomas and Peter Broxton, Vaso Vaino from Stripe Consulting (category sponsor) and Scott Wallace of NSL

A historic partnership Outstanding Car Park Operator Durham and NSL Durham County Council provides a park & ride service and city centre parking facilities used by residents, visitors and businesses. Day-to-day operation is carried out by NSL, which is part of Marston Holdings.

The Durham park & ride service runs from three sites – Belmont, Howlands and Sniperley. All three are owned by Durham County Council and operated by NSL. In total the park & ride service provide 1,414 surface level spaces along with 53 disabled bays, seven electric charging points, 11 secure cycle stores, 14 motor home bays and ticket offices and toilet facilities.

Surveys show that nearly half of customers use the park & ride for commuting, a third for shopping and the rest for tourism and ad-hoc visits. About 50% of users make use of the park & ride between 3-6 times a week. The majority of park & ride customers are female, with older age groups using the service more frequently than younger groups. A small proportion of users are disabled: the sites are DDA-compliant and have specialist welfare facilities for disabled customers.

The park & ride operates between 7am and 7pm – frequently closing later for late night shopping, festivals and events. Payment can be made using cash, card or by charging a smart card.

Enforcement is avoided if possible, with mobile patrollers work to help customers park correctly.

The Durham park & ride sites now offer facilities for more sustainable modes of transport including charging points for electric vehicles and secure cycle storage facilities. New EV chargers installed 2022 to provide enhanced charging for P&R users and for local residents requiring overnight charging points. All the Award sponsored by

sites have slow chargers fitted and Belmont features a superfast charger due to proximity to the A1 motorway.

The council has worked to meet the needs of both residents and visitors. Durham recognised that several motorhomes were parking overnight within County Durham car parks. This was not permitted under the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), but the council recognised that adding overnight motorhome parking within the Belmont P&R would be useful for the many visitors to Durham and to resolve issues within other car parks. The council liaised with representatives of motorcaravan body CAMpRA and asked volunteers to use the new provision free of charge and provide it with feedback.

In 2019 Durham also opened a new coach park within Belmont park & ride providing a boost for tourism. The facility has 30 spaces for coaches. Coaches using the site may drop people off and pick them up in the city centre at a dedicated coach bay on Framwellgate Waterside, then drive over to the park & ride site to park. This is free for coaches and provides better facilities for their drivers, including toilet facilities. Drivers are then able to board the P&R bus for free should they wish to visit the city centre themselves. In addition, the site has facilities allowing coach drivers to clean their vehicles inside and out and includes facilities for them to empty chemical toilets, which is the only site where they may do so between York and Edinburgh.

The Sands multi-storey car park was built to replace a surface car park that was redeveloped into a new business centre for Durham University. The Sands multi-storey car park was designed to meet new standards for accessibility, with the council adopting the larger parking bay sizes and providing Blue Badge bays, Blue Badge EV bays, lifts and ramp access. Ground floor automatic doors improve access for wheelchair uses and pushchairs. The car park is always open, with telephone support available 24/7.

Jury comment Durham County Council has created a set of parking policies and facilities that seek to provide people visiting the historic – shoppers, tourists and those on business. Its contractor, NSL, operates ihe park & ride and city centre car parks in a professional and personable manner.

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Adam Stout from APT Skidata (category sponsor) with Lambeth Council’s Steve Davidson, Andy Skilton, Grant Jones, Tom Gallagher, awards host and Lambeth’s Jean-Marc Moocarme

Protecting the Blue Badge Parking Partnerships Award National Blue Badge Day of Action The London Borough of Lambeth has long been at the forefront of Blue Badge enforcement in the UK. In 2006, it became one of the first local authorities to establish a dedicated parking fraud investigations team.

The misuse of Blue Badges by dishonest drivers prevents people with disabilities from being able to park where they need to. When Blue Badges are used fraudulently, it also undermines the scheme.

Sometimes, people with non-visible disabilities who are legitimate badge holders could be accused of fraud. This causes distress and damages the reputation of the Blue Badge system.

There is also a significant cost to the public. By claiming exemptions like avoiding congestion charges, Blue Badge holders can save £2,500 per year. They may also get out of paying for a resident’s parking permit, which can cost anywhere from £50 to £250 per year. If they avoid paying hourly parking charges of £3 per hour for 40 hours a week, that adds up to an additional £6,000 per year. The fraudulent use of Blue Badges could cost local government £5,000 to £10,000 per badge each year, in addition to causing an inconvenience for disabled drivers and passengers. If a borough manages to take 100 fraudulent badges off the streets in a year, it could save the public purse over £500,000.

In 2021, Lambeth introduced the London Parking Fraud Forum and Blue Badge Day of Action, two interactive days geared towards disseminating knowledge and empowering investigators through meaningful networking opportunities.

With a focus on combating Blue Badge fraud, these events have now become an annual national platform for exchanging best Award sponsored by

practices and fostering connections among parking fraud investigators. Via the forum Lambeth been able to encourage greater collaboration between the boroughs when it comes to tackling parking fraud, and to foster new relationships which make sharing intelligence easier.

In early 2023, supported by London Councils, Lambeth invited all UK parking authorities and relevant organisations to the National Parking Fraud Forum. The event was held online in May. A total of 150 parking and fraud professionals from 75 bodies gathered and discussed the common challenges we face relating to parking fraud.

A Day of Action was proposed in 2021 at the London Parking Fraud Forum. Via the National Parking Fraud Forum it became a nationwide campaign. Thus, on Friday 26 May 2023 parking authorities across Britain came together to work collectively on the National Blue Badge Enforcement Day of Action, organised, coordinated, and led by Lambeth with the support of London Councils. On the day, all 82 participating boroughs committed to dedicating their investigative and enforcement resources to targeting Blue Badge misuse and fraud. This meant 340 officers deployed on the streets of the UK. The Blue Badge Day of Action really made an impact. Approximately 5,145 Blue Badges were inspected, some 227 criminal offences identified relating to Blue Badges and other parking offences. A total of 39 stolen Blue Badges were seized and taken off the streets.

The Day of Action was not only a success in terms of the enforcement on the day, but it has also functioned as a catalyst for many other local councils to look at the way they manage the Blue Badge scheme moving forward. The National Day of Action is now planned as a annual event.

Jury comment Lambeth Council has shown a real desire to encourage collaboration between boroughs when it comes to tackling Blue Badge misuse and fraud, providing a much needed focus on a national problem. This is a genuine non-commercial partnership that has clear aims and is scalable.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

Deterring Blue Badge abuse

Haringey Council’s Ademuyiwa Shajuyigbe, Denise Adolphe, Joanne Lewis, Tim Gunn, James Rasaki and Adam Callender

Parking Technology Award: Projects London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey is using technology to deter the misuse and theft of Blue Badge permits.

For many disabled residents in Haringey Blue Badge theft and misuse is a huge concern. Whilst the vast majority of Blue Badge holders use their badges responsibly, there are individuals who abuse the scheme by using a badge that has been reported lost or stolen. Misuse by a third party might include using a Blue Badge belonging to someone who has died, using a stolen blue badge or using a fake Blue Badge.

The misuse of the Blue Badge scheme can result in a genuinely disabled person being unable to access a parking space. Whilst having a Blue Badge stolen causes a significant amount of upset, distress and inconvenience as well as cost. The cost of repairs to cars that are broken into to steal Blue Badges can run into hundreds of pounds. One Haringey Blue Badge holder said: “My Blue Badge was stolen from my car on the disabled bay in front of my house. The car window was smashed in the process. The realisation that my blue badge had been stolen was a shock to the system and made me feel angry, vulnerable and scared. The stress continued weeks after the event due to the hassle of getting a replacement badge as well as a new windscreen for the car with a hefty cost. Simply put it was a nightmare which I do not wish on others to experience.”

Blue Badge Checker: To help identify fake and stolen Blue Badges the Blue Badge Checker was created to combat Blue Badge fraud in Haringey by the council’s compliance manager Tim Gunn who worked with Taranto Systems to put his vision Award sponsored by

into the technology. The Blue Badge Checker is a feature on the council’s civil enforcement officer’s handheld devices to check the status and authenticity of a Blue Badge during their day-to-day operations to help confiscate more stolen and fraudulent badges.

Where there is a “hit” against the database, an automated alert (including GPS location of the offending vehicle) is sent to designated council officers, in order to assess the situation and determine what action needs to be taken. This may result in the issue of a penalty charge notice (PCN) and removal of the vehicle.

Any PCN issued will be treated separately to the offences related to the misuse of a disabled persons badge; the charge can be paid or challenged using the appropriate methods outlined on the notice itself.

The Blue Badge Checker is also used by the Compliance and Process Investigation team alongside the civil enforcement officers when undertaking Blue Badge operations around the borough.

Virtual Resident Blue Badge Holder Permit: Alongside the Blue Badge checker and also aimed at reducing Blue Badge fraud, the council created a free virtual Resident Blue Badge Holder Permit. The virtual permit is open to all Blue Badge holders in the borough. It can be used borough-wide in place of a Blue Badge, helping prevent the theft of a Blue Badge from a vehicle. The virtual permit allows holders to park in non-dedicated parking bays, residential, shared use and pay-by-phone parking bays (controlled using RingGo). The vehicle used can be registered to anyone in the same household.

When using the virtual permit, the Blue Badge must be available for inspection when requested by an enforcement officer. When using the virtual permit, the Blue Badge holder must be present either as the driver or passenger of the vehicle.

Jury comment Haringey Council’s actions to tackle abuse of the Blue Badge scheme is a common sense application of technology to address a real problem. The project is one with a high degree of merit that local authorities across the UK should pay attention to.

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Technology Award winner.

Three years running.

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Barbour Logic’s Cordelia Barbour, Olivia Eves, Matt Turner, Jason Barbour, Janice Wigglesworth, Kishan Hickman, Natasha Sibley of Go2Sim (category sponsor) and Barbour Logic’s George Thomas

Giving drivers a voice Parking Technology Award: Systems Barbour Logic Voice Master Barbour Logic has created Voice Master, an artificial intelligence (AI) powered helpline that offers help to people struggling to resolve penalty charge notices (PCNs).

Parking is complex. When people receive a PCN that they think is unfair, they seek help. But financial pressures have meant that many local authority PCN helplines have closed or offer minimal help. Instead, people are expected to seek help online.

However, Barbour Logic says that many cannot pointing out that 22% of adults are ‘digitally excluded’, meaning they lack online skills, and 16% of adults are ‘functionally illiterate’, meaning they don’t have the reading skills. The demise of PCN helplines means an estimated 2 million disadvantaged adults are unable to access help.

Barbour Logic’s Voice Master handles PCN calls and advises callers like an expert human, ensuring that everyone can access the help they need, whatever their digital or literacy skills. Voice Master is an AI helpline that has an in-depth, human-like conversation with each caller and then gives them tailored advice.

To create Voice Master, Barbour Logic drew on its expertise in developing online systems that enable local authorities and drivers to understand parking policies or write appeals. Jason Barbour, founder and managing director of Barbour Logic, says: “Voice Master is not an interactive voice response (IVR) system, You don’t press 1 for this or 2 for that. That wouldn’t work because we cover 100 reasons/topics. Instead, callers speak naturally to say what they want. And for the minority of callers we can’t help, we offer quick exit options to minimise frustration. These are configurable: skip and pay, skip and challenge, or speak to a human.

Award sponsored by

“Like a human, Voice Master has to speak, listen, understand, and think. It has to understand the caller’s string of words (‘moving heavy items’) and work out what they mean (loading).

Then it has to have a dynamic conversation, reacting to each answer the caller gives. To do that, Voice Master needs to know parking like an expert, and the council/operator’s many leniency policies too. All this involves numerous complex processes working super-fast behind the scenes to continue the human-like conversation and conclude it with tailored advice. If many drivers call at once, Voice Master speaks to them all simultaneously.”

Testimonials Voice Master went live with Coventry, North Tyneside and Perth councils in December 2022 and feedback has been positive.

Paul Bowman, parking manager, Coventry City Council: “Voice Master provides our customers with better access to services, meaning they can engage with us in a way, and at a time, that is convenient for them. It provides expert advice without the need for more experts and is helping us to deliver efficiencies.”

Nicole Smith, parking and civil contingencies officer, Perth & Kinross Council: “Voice Master is a breakthrough for inclusivity.

As PCN helplines disappear across the sector, the disadvantaged people who needed them have become excluded from help. Voice Master changes all that. Now, there’s phone help for all, giving each caller tailored advice. And it’s there for them 24/7. Voice Master is a major innovation.”

Garry Hoyle, parking and regelation manager, North Tyneside Council: “Voice Master ensures everyone, especially the disadvantaged, has access to help. Voice Master is a lifeline for disadvantaged adults who need a helpline. They simply call Voice Master, 24/7, have a chat with the AI and get tailored advice. It’s a dramatic breakthrough for the parking sector and for motorists.”

Jury comment Barbour Logic’s work has great moral support for disadvantaged users and also presents a great use of technology and application of future AI. The Voice Master project continues a trend of development by Barbour Logic of ways to mitigate the difficulties in dealing with a PCN.

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Kieron Leader and Victoria Keeler Kent County Council),, Alexis Newport (Buchanan Computing), Neil Edwards, Charlea Best, Robin Chantrill-Smith, Annette Bonner and Lorna Day (KCC), Mark Steel, Gurpeet Dhamu of EVC (category sponsor) and Daniel Taylor and Steve Dicker (Buchanan)

Putting Kent on the map Connected Parking Award Kent County Council ParkMap Project The team at Kent County Council, working in partnership with Buchanan Computing, are combining all Traffic Regulation Orders, both parking and waiting restrictions as well as those relating to moving traffic and speed limits, into a single, interactive web-based resource, putting up-to-date and concise information at all interested parties’ fingertips, in a clear and unambiguous way.

Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) are documents containing the legal foundations for various kinds of highway restrictions: speed limits; banned turns; bus lanes; parking and waiting restrictions and beyond. Over time, these orders come to describe large numbers of sites and various sorts of restrictions, often with multiple types found in the same location. The potential for discrepancy and inaccuracy develops over time, impeding authority officers, utility companies, the public and other partners, as they seek to understand the nature and extent of control in the areas where they live.

The ParkMap Project was originally programmed to last 18-24 months and commenced in 2019. The challenges of a global pandemic extended this timescale. As part of the preliminary investigations, Kent County Council collaborated with 12 district authorities and Buchanan Computing, to review existing processes behind the drafting, production, and display of TROs and formulated common templates for all parking and waiting orders, promoting the best processes currently in place. The decision to create a consolidated, digitised solution for Kent led to the Award sponsored by

existing partnership with the Buchanan Computing to develop still further.

To enable Kent to ensure that the work was completed accurately, the 12 individual Kent district authorities required an intensive and accurate on the ground survey, to provide the consistent and accurate data relating to all signs and lines currently on the public highway. This also required all word-based paper TROs currently held by the county and district authorities to be brought together, checked for accuracy against all restrictions on the ground, anomalies to be identified and corrected and all 12 authorities to consolidate all their individual existing orders. This presented a challenge to all partners in a time of budget constraint and scarce spare officer capacity. However, following the time taken to confirm or amend, officers and the public can be confident that, moving forward, the resulting TROs match the restrictions that they find on-street.

It was also necessary to standardise the visual display of each individual restriction to allow a Kent countywide standard which would be easily understood by all viewing customers. Investigations were conducted and all existing best practice was combined and utilised. Only once this process was completed and all parties were satisfied that the information gathered was accurate and complete, could the process of plotting each individual order onto the ParkMap programme commence.

Lorna Day, parking and enforcement manager at Kent County Council, says: “Whilst similar work has been undertaken in other parts of the country, this is the first time that all TROs will be shown in one location, on such a large scale, with the ability to be viewed by all interested parties on a web and map-based digital solution.”

Jury comment Kent’s ParkMap project is an innovative and joined-up approach that makes the TRO process more accessible to the public, allowing them to view the restriction prior to utilising the highway and ensuring each order can more readily resist challenge, providing civil enforcement officers and notice processing staff with confidence in enforcement or correct contraventions.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

The unsung heroes of parking

Laura Harris, Ollie Miller, Richard Plant, Chris Loughran, Nisha Damhar, Alex Sargent and Darren Pacey

The Back Office Award WSP Liveable Places Parking Team Drafting Traffic Regulation Orders and conducting public consultations are tasks that ensure the success of parking schemes.

WSP has around 7,000 staff across the UK working in a wide range of transportation, engineering and related services. Its Liveable Places Parking Team sits within the Liveable Places Service Line, which brings together a wide range of specialisms including traffic engineering, public realm transport planning, road safety and active travel to offer clients a one-stop shop service helping to drive forward transport’s contribution to the sense of place in an area.

The Parking Team, in their ‘behind the scenes’ roles, add what can be intangible extra value to schemes, whether it be legal advice around traffic orders, support around new technology or enforcement of a design.

Ollie Miller, technical director, Liveable Places, says: “Relatively low profile and somewhat unsung due to the technical and specific nature of what they do, our Parking Team plays a critically important role in the back office for clients across the country.

What makes the Parking Team special is that although they work within one of the largest consultancy companies in the world, they act with a very local focus and deliver extremely good customer service for local authority clients across the UK. “Projects typically range from supporting counties in England’s South West with transforming the way they manage their kerbside through to designing controlled parking zones for authorities in Award sponsored by

the home counties, to developing parking and kerbside policy for authorities in London. Across all locations and across the wide range of services delivered, the Liveable Places Parking Team always deliver locally specific and targeted solutions from their back office position.”

Case study: Camden Housing Estate Parking Project The team managed a borough-wide consultation, design and implementation of enforceable parking designs and traffic orders on housing estates in the London Borough of Camden.

Richard Plant, project manager and workstream lead, built effective positive relationships vital to progressing a high profile and ongoing project. Components of the project included: • engaging with all borough housing estate residents on the legalities and benefits of formal parking controls • progressing bespoke and safe designs for a shortlisted nine estates • consultation with those estates on proposed designs • progressing to draft and implementing TMOs (October 2023).

Case study: Royal Albert Hall Counter Terror Scheme The Liveable Places Parking Team was involved in a scheme by Westminster City Council to close off the western arm of Kensington Gore for 12 hours each day to help protect visitors to the Royal Albert Hall from any potential vehicle-based terror threat.

The proposals proved contentious, and a local resident pursued his objection through the courts. The legal challenge was on three grounds, the Public Sector Equality Duty, the Human Rights Act, and the correct use of section 22 for the traffic order.

The team’s work on this project was led by Phil Jessop.

Jury comment Parking is an ever evolving sector with new regulations, technologies and best practice. The WSP Liveable Places Parking Team keeps abreast of these changes through continuous training and development. The team have thus developed a good reputation for providing a knowledgeable back office service on a wide range of traffic and parking schemes.

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Cloud spells fair weather Brighton & Hove City Council improves back-office efficiency with Taranto

W

e profile one of Taranto’s clients that recently implemented Taranto’s Parking Enforcement Solution to see how their back-office has approached adopting a new platform and the benefits they have seen in the last six months. Brighton & Hove City Council faces multiple challenges in relation to traffic management. As a busy tourist and conference destination, visitor vehicles add to the high volumes of traffic in the city, contributing to congestion, parking issues, as well as pollution.

Brighton has a high-profile green agenda and aims to encourage more environmentally aware forms of transport and reduce emissions – with the objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

And like all councils across the country, Brighton is under pressure to control costs.

In times of cost constraints, local authorities aim to achieve more with fewer resources. Brighton & Hove City Council reviewed their 20year-old parking enforcement system to see if they could provide better traffic management and parking services for residents, businesses and visitors. After thorough consideration, they concluded that a modern, cloud-based solution would not only enhance services but also streamline the parking back-office operations. Brighton’s back-office team consists of a highly integrated team of managers, supervisors and officers with a mix of hybrid office and home working.

Brighton’s parking strategy is a key element in the council’s objective of reducing congestion and maintaining free flow of traffic, as well as to support the green agenda. The city has introduced a complex range of parking zones and types of enforcement which creates a large volume of work for the back-office parking team.

A modern cloud-based system

Automation means fewer errors

Once they decided that they could achieve significant improvements with a newer system, Brighton initiated a competitive tender exercise and eventually selected Taranto’s cloud-based hosted Parking Enforcement Solution. One of the key objectives was to replace manual back-office processes with a more intuitive automated platform.

The automation of manual processes has resulted in improved accuracy and a reduction in errors. Cases are less likely to be cancelled as mistakes have been minimised. There have been other improvements as well. Efficiency is also improved through Taranto’s self-service portal which encourages the public to pay fines online, reducing the need for direct interaction with the parking department.

Compliance Compliance is also important to ensure adherence to proper procedures in handling PCNs and minimise the number of disallowed fines. As Stephen Simpson, PCN Appeals Manager, explains: “The Taranto system is much more in line with legal processes, so from an audit perspective, it’s easier to achieve better compliance. Taranto keeps us on track and everything is very manageable on the legal side of things.”

Brighton went live with Taranto in January 2023 and the council soon started to see benefits from the new system: “Within a very short time, we’ve completely eliminated some of our manual processes, so we’ve already seen benefits in the first six months,” said PCN Team Manager Hannah Boakye.

Back-office team approach To help with the transition to the new system, Brighton established a dedicated team to focus on rolling out the new parking enforcement platform. This team of supervisors and officers, worked closely with Taranto’s project team with regular meetings, both virtual and on-site.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE Fewer appeals and challenges Automation has also led to a noticeable reduction in the number of appeals and challenges as the system provides photographic evidence of the contravention and location map of where the fine was incurred. Half of the PCNs issued in the city are related to moving traffic contraventions. Brighton has introduced mobile CCTV cameras integrated with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, further aiding efficient enforcement.

Tracing registered vehicle users As a popular tourist and conference centre, Brighton deals with a high proportion of PCNs incurred by visitors. Integration with the DVLA lookup using the Taranto system has streamlined the process of sending PCNs to the registered keepers. Tracing rental and leased vehicles can also be time-consuming, creating delays in issuing notices and receiving payment.

Brighton & Hove has adopted Taranto’s Fleet Bureau module which automates the process of tracing vehicle users, enabling transfer of liability related to rental or leased vehicles. As a result, fines can be processed, and ultimately, paid faster. Fleet Bureau has a VRM database of over 1 million records, which automates vehicle tracing and transfer of liability and is faster than using the DVLA system.

Improved responsiveness and flexibility A more modern software platform offers greater flexibility. According to Team Leader Jasmine, the team are now able to respond to appeals better and where appropriate, make a manual intervention.

For example, if a caseworker decides to extend the discount period, the PCN can then be reintroduced back into the system so that the correct processes can automatically be followed within the workflows.

Jasmine comments: “We certainly couldn’t do this in the old system. If we took a PCN out of the system, it was impossible for it to go back into the process through the normal workflow and we had to monitor the timelines manually. Now, with Taranto, there’s much more flexibility and we can include an offer for the case, if for example the person didn’t see the original PCN and then once the discount has expired, it can go back to the correct progression of the case. This really helps with our workload as we no longer have to monitor the progression, Taranto automatically does this. This is really helpful and saves a lot of time.”

challenge. However, as data migration is a key element of a Taranto implementation, and the Taranto team is very experienced in migrating millions of records, the migration was completed, while maintaining service continuity. Moving legacy records is an opportunity to refine business processes, cleanse the dataset, and review existing data in the system. The Brighton team was very relieved and pleased that the migration went according to plan.

Introducing the ‘Super-Users’ In order to make the transition to the new system as risk-free as possible, with minimal disruption to daily working, Brighton established a group of ‘super-users’ of supervisors and officers to help the rest of the team adapt to the new system. This approach engaged the team in the transition process, with individual team members taking ownership of different elements of the implementation.

According to PCN Team Senior Supervisor Sue Mallinson: “The implementation went a lot smoother than anticipated and the approach was very professional. We’ve had a lot of support from Taranto’s project delivery and training team. It really has been an easy transition from the old system to the new one.”

With a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform in place, Brighton & Hove City Council plans to continually enhance its parking and traffic management system which will not only improve congestion and traffic flow, but ultimately will contribute to better air quality though reductions in emissions. The improvement in air quality will support the city’s net-zero targets.

Reporting functionality The back-office team are using the Taranto system to improve analytics and reporting, to improve accountability. The Query Builder module is a powerful reporting tool that can be adapted to users’ reporting requirements. It’s particularly useful for responses to Freedom of Information requests and other citizen inquiries relating to parking.

Planning for the future As Brighton’s back-office team becomes more familiar with the Taranto system, they expect to introduce further efficiencies and enhance parking services for the city. This ongoing commitment to improvement highlights Brighton & Hove City Council’s dedication to providing the best possible parking and traffic management services for its residents and visitors.

Efficient data migration When introducing the new system, there was nearly 20 years’ worth of data to be migrated – which Brighton thought might be a

For more information on Taranto’s Parking Enforcement Solution visit: www.tarantosystems.com

Taranto Taranto leads the market in traffic enforcement and management solutions, with over 20 years’ experience of delivering innovation in the parking sector. Taranto works with local authorities, private parking companies and fleet firms to provide comprehensive parking, environmental and traffic management systems to keep traffic flowing smoothly and improve air quality, as well as reduce the administrative burden on back-office teams.

Taranto’s award-winning parking enforcement and traffic management systems are used by over 60 UK central and local government organisations, with over 12 of London’s 32 boroughs using our solutions.

Taranto is part of the global Modaxo Group, which specialises in new technologies and innovation in the transportation sector.

tarantosystems.com

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

Designing the future

Russell Simmons (Stripe Consulting), Mark Pundsack (City of London and chair of Car Park Design Contributor Group), Chris Whapples (overseeing consultant), Fiona Petch (Fatkin Architects), jury member Mahmood Siddiqi, Peter Guest, Lee Baldwin (IStructE), Helen Thompson (IStructE), Mark Steel, Dan Gullock (Fatkin Architects) and jury member Elizabeth Gilliard

Special Jury Award Car Park Design With the publication of Car Park Design, the Institution of Structural Engineers has brought design concepts, themes and issues into the 21st century.

The IStructE’s has set the standard for car park design for more than 45 years. The institution first published guidance in 1976 called Design recommendations for multi-storey and underground car parks, with three further editions published. The most recent, released in 2011, reflected the considerable changes in car park design, especially the learnings from numerous serious structural fears, including the Pipers Row deck collapse in Wolverhampton during 1994.

The new guidance builds on that legacy to provide completely revised and updated information for anyone involved in car park design, construction, maintenance and re-use. But Car Park Design is not a 5th edition, but a completely refreshed document.

The mission IStructE set was to produce completely new guidance that shows how car park designs have adapted to the needs of a changing society. A senior in-house publisher worked closely with a team of specialist authors for over two years to ensure the editorial quality of the product was commensurate with the technical expertise of the authors. Indeed, IStructE consciously deviated from its usual house style to give the authors more profile, so detailed author biographies span three pages.

The new book the team produced, Car Park Design, reflects the significant changes to vehicular size, weight and manoeuvrability in recent years, to offer modern guidance on parking bay sizes and deck loadings. Hybrid and electric vehicle use, together with the need for inclusive design and a far greater emphasis on sustainable

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solutions, have necessitated a completely new approach to internal layouts and other requirements for structural design — including the minimisation of fire spread. There are also chapters dedicated to futureproofing, quality control during construction, suicide prevention measures, asset management, and special car parks such as those with robotic systems.

Safety and sustainability are key themes running through the guidance, which is ahead of the game compared to current design standards. This is important, as structural engineers consider the safety of structures from design and construction through to operation and demolition, in accordance with local legislation.

Contents and structure The themes contained in the guidance are extensive. They were chosen after undertaking a review of current documentation with a view to plugging any shortfalls and above all to set new standards of design. The editorial team ensured that the content is well coordinated, original and not just a repetition of current codes of practice.

The new guidance says: “The pace of change towards autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles is also accelerating, and car parks will need to be designed to accommodate this. Car sizes and weights are increasing and modes of transport are also changing – with electric cycles and scooters becoming mainstream, and a significant increase in traditional bicycle use.”

The guidance is in two parts: the first focusses on conceptual design and is primarily intended for clients, architects and project managers; the second focusses on the detailed design, primarily intended for structural engineers and the wider construction industry and maintenance teams.

Virtually everything has changed when compared to the previous design recommendations: • guidance on parking bay sizes has been updated • the loadings on the structure and cladding have increased • information on electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints reflects current and likely future scenarios • guidance on accessibility for all users, including the need for inclusive design, have been included

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS • the fire recommendations have been upgraded • and details about modern payment systems and controls have been introduced.

The team

From the very start, achieving clarity was of paramount importance.

The guidance draws heavily on high quality imagery to help bring concepts and actual examples, to life. It includes: • 3D models to illustrate the positives and negatives of different parking layouts • chapters on sustainability, achieving zero carbon design and futureproofing to ensure that designs are adaptable to meet future needs, including the introduction of autonomous vehicles • guidance on designing out risks such as suicide, theft, personal attack and fire following the Kings Dock multi-storey car park fire in Liverpool during 2017 in which 1,390 cars were destroyed • a ‘designing for construction’ section that includes asset management to be consistent with the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Recommendations for Inspection, Maintenance and Management of Car Park Structures • modifying and upgrading existing structures along with special structures (i.e. mechanical car parks) is now included too.

Chair: Mark Pundsack, assistant district surveyor at the City of London and Fellow of IStructE Overseeing consultant: Chris Whapples, independent consultant and Fellow of IStructE.

Building awareness The guidance was solely funded by IStructE as an in-house project. The chair, co-author and authors gave their time and expertise freely, which is a reflection of their passion about their subject expertise and willingness to promote it.

Media relations focussed on a public interest angle: the safety of car parks given that electric vehicles are now much heavier.

The guide made headlines, securing over 70 pieces of media coverage including BBC Radio 4 and Chris Whapples was namechecked on BBC One’s Have I Got News for You, twice!

The guidance will be regularly reviewed by the Institution’s Technical Products Panel to ensure that it remains accurate and relevant. Car Park Design is considered to be a ‘living document’ whereby suggestions for change or notification of errors identified by either the panel or by the wider readership, can be considered and implemented quickly.

Car Park Design was produced by a multi-disciplnary team:

Authors Peter Guest, consultant Dan Gullock, director, Fatkin Architects Alan McBryan, regional director, AECOM Fiona Petch, director, Fatkin Architects Peter Robery, director, Robery Forensic Engineering Russell Simmons, chief executive, Ballast Nedam UK and founder, Stripe Consulting Jeff Stewart, technical director, Ballast Nedam UK Chris Watkins, senior consultant, access and design team, Arup Reviewers N Ely, Environment Agency Gordon Deuce, chief engineer, Mace Group Publisher Lee Baldwin, head of publishing, IStructE

Jury comment Car Park Design is an essential guide for a car park developer, operator or designer. For the newcomer or non-specialist alike, it sets out a comprehensive overview well and acts as a signpost to many key issues.

Award presented by

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Ken Prior (ex-C&CW), Daniella Finlay and Mike Leader (C&CW) with Brannan Coady of YourParkingSpace (sponsor) and Mark Steel

Chester’s green gateway Best New Car Park: Town & City New Market Parking, Chester The impressive New Market Parking is a contemporary gateway to the historic city of Chester. The car park provides essential accessibility and security for users and affords visitors with their first impression of both the Northgate development and the city.

Cheshire and Chester West Council’s flagship New Market Parking (NMP) was opened at the end of October 2022 and forms part of the £75m Northgate development phase one scheme in the heart of Chester’s city centre. Chester Northgate is a market and leisure destination, opened in late 2022 after over 30 years of planning.

The new car park replaces a 1960s car park that sat under the old market and Forum shopping centre. Being able to close the market car park has been a long-held ambition of the council.

The NMP provides direct access into the new market hall as well as into Exchange Square and the Coachworks Arcade within the Northgate scheme.

A number of active travel options remain available to access Northgate including the free Shopper Hopper from the Bus Interchange at Gorse Stacks to Hunter Street, which links with all services including the park & ride network, plus there are over a 100 bike spaces.

The council’s construction partner for the scheme was Vinci Construction UK and the car park was designed by AHR. One of the biggest challenges they faced delivering the NMP has been protecting the site’s archaeology, which was once one of the largest Roman fortresses in Britain. Despite finding over 10,000 Roman artefacts, the works disturbed less than 3% of the archaeology, as the foundations were innovatively designed to let the car Award sponsored by

park ‘float’ above the archaeology.

The NMP provides 800-spaces across seven-levels. The structure is a mixture of steelwork and precast concrete, with the body of the parking decks fabricated in steel and the decks and circulation cores formed in concrete. Using prefabricated elements allowed for quick erection on site and, with early input from consultants, allowed components to be coordinated before reaching the site.

Precast concrete cores provide inherent fire resistance, which avoids complex and labour-intensive fire encasements on site.

The external cladding is a mixture of solid panels, perforated panels, expanded mesh and, on the Western façade, a living wall to reflect the Welsh countryside beyond. Early-stage subcontractor input allowed the green wall components to be fully designed into the façade, with integrated channels in the façade framework for irrigation and drainage.

To improve visitor engagement, NMP’s stair cores have been decorated with artwork designed by Chester artist Graham Boyd, featuring murals celebrating 2,000 years of Chester’s history, with an online version for those unable to use the stairs.

Working closely with scheme architects AHR and local accessibility groups, the council ensured the NMP complied with all relevant standards and it was granted a Park Mark. It has clear signage, help points, colour-coded levels, lift access from street level into the site and all floors, comprehensive CCTV coverage and direct access into the new market hall next door. The NMP features a sprinkler system, a fire protection system designed to suppress and extinguish fires in parking structures.

Car park staff have a dedicated office space with toilets, CCTV and a security door by the car park entrance so customers can easily access help. Staff have received praise from customers for helping with flat batteries, punctures and accessing passes for the Cycle Hub.

Jury comment New Market Parking is a brilliant example of the car park as a civic structure. A key element for a regeneration of the city’s retail offer, it is a thoughtfully designed, very contemporary building that complements, respects and celebrates its historic setting.

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New Market Parking, Chester

NMP provides EV charging

Stairwell art by Graham Boyd

Up on the roof of the NMP

The New Chester Market

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

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The heart of a new town

Dan Gullock (Fatkin), Cllr Lloyd Briscoe (Stevenage Borough Council), Phil Chater (HUBER car park systems), Mark Steel, Andy Gough (Stevenage), Naoum Karikas and Carlos Laclaustra (HUBER), Fiona Petch (Fatkin), Justin Beckingham (HUBER) and Brannan Coady of YourParkingSpace (category sponsor)

Best New Car Park: Town & City Railway North Car Park, Stevenage Stevenage Borough Council’s new Railway North car park features electric vehicle chargepoints and makes provision for cycle parking.

The car park is a central element of the Station Gateway project.

It is both an architectural celebration of the new town, and a pioneering example of sustainability by providing a central transfer point from private to public transport.

The multi-storey car park was delivered by contractor HUBER car park systems UK working with Fatkin Architects. The car park received funding from the government’s Towns Fund. Stevenage Development Board secured £37.5m, the second joint highest bid in the country. Some £1.1m was contributed as part of the multi-million pound Growth Deal funding secured by Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership for Stevenage regeneration.

Opened in May 2023, the car park provides 622 spaces, including spaces for electric vehicle charging and Blue Badge parking. There are no columns for ease of manoeuvring and dynamic space counting and ticketless parking management with camera recognition offer convenience and CCTV security. The Railway North car park is the first in Hertfordshire to receive the Park Mark Plus accreditation.

A total of 80 bicycle bays are provided in a separate building that acts as a gateway to the project, and there are 27 motorbike parking spaces. The mix of modes on offer means the development is also referred to as the ‘Stevenage Mobility Hub’. The car park and cycle hub both feature solar panels to aid its sustainability.

The car park’s façade marks the entrance to the town from the Award sponsored by

railway station by celebrating the achievements of Stevenage in the fields of science and technology. The railway-facing west elevation of the car park features a montage of space exploration and scientific images, whilst the town-facing east elevation features a range of human silhouettes and the town’s motto: “The heart of a town lies in its people.”

Cllr Richard Henry, leader of Stevenage Borough Council, says: “The Railway North car park has been judged as being best in class and through its bold design marks not only the scientific milestones that have come from the town but also creates a real welcome to Stevenage. We are meeting the expectations of consumers in the modern day and providing for the future with a car park with experience and usability at its heart, which includes dedicated secure cycle parking.”

Cllr Lloyd Briscoe, executive member for economy and transport, adds: “This facility provides an enhanced user experience, contributing a sustainable travel hub which offers people choices as to how they can travel. We are strengthening what the town has to offer, enhancing the welcome to visitors, encouraging businesses to expand and supporting communities across Hertfordshire.”

Adrian Hawkins OBE, chair of Stevenage Development Board and chair of Hertfordshire LEP, says: “The Stevenage Development Board is delivering a visionary regeneration programme supported by a diverse range of stakeholders including the LEP, to transform the town into a vibrant and thriving STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) hub.”

Markus Lauble, managing director, HUBER car park systems UK, says: “Right from the start of this project, we enjoyed a positive, open and transparent working partnership with Stevenage Borough Council, and are delighted that the end product proved to be an award-winning mobility hub we can all be extremely proud of.”

Jury comment Stevenage’s new Railway North car park and mobility hub provide a modern facility that encourages multi-modal travel. This is also a high quality civic development whose striking exterior celebrates the achievements of the new town’s citizens in the fields of science and technology.

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Railway North, Stevenage

The cycle hub and gateway

‘The heart of a town lies in its people’

EV charging bays

Solar panels on the roof

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Jonathan Lunn (Turner & Townsend), Graham McPherson and John Ward (SRM) and Jeanette Armin (Sunderland City Council) with Mark Steel and Brannan Coady of YourParkingSpace (category sponsor)

A beacon of new hope Best New Car Park: Town & City Riverside Sunderland The new Sunderland City Council Riverside car park is a key element in the development of Riverside Sunderland and an example of how parking solution can be sustainable.

The car park will help to enable the growth of a vibrant mixed-use community including housing, leisure and employment opportunities including approximately 10,000 new jobs and the construction of 1,000 new homes.

Designed by architectural firm Tonkin Liu, the car park acts as an important element of infrastructure created to reduce congestion and works towards the area’s ambition of being a pedestrian priority zone and is a perfect example of how development can seamlessly blend functionality and aesthetics with sustainable construction.

The car park is situated on a key gateway into the city with good road connections and vehicular access, picking up vehicles at the periphery of the new community to further reducing congestion in the city centre.

There are 657 spaces over 11 split levels including the flexibility for 49 accessible bays, 115 EV spaces, motorcycle and cycle storage and associated infrastructure, with considered design of the surrounding landscaping and public realm works to ensure the building sits well within its setting.

The car park’s wrap has perforated panels to maximise transparency and views in and out of the structure. The use of external lighting in graded colour tones has been included to bring an inviting glow to illuminate the car park at night to take advantage of the prominent position of the site from the surrounding areas.

Award sponsored by

A feature blue wave will wash over the eastern façade of the building during hours of darkness, with coloured displays occasionally being used to mark key moments and awareness days in the city calendar. Internal passive infrared sensor (PIR) lighting ensures the energy usage is kept to a minimum level.

Designed to drive down carbon emissions and mitigate pollution the car park has two living walls constructed with over 50,000 plants, some of which are native to Britain and were carefully selected for their ability to thrive in the local climate. The green walls are located on the north and south sides of the car park, the structure spans 200,000 square feet and provides a stunning new gateway to Riverside Sunderland.

The car park is operated by a digital and cashless payment system, controlled by ANPR that allows a free flow of traffic entering, and minimal pause upon exit of the car park, to further remove exhaust emissions from idling cars waiting at barriers.

The online payment system enables customers to pre-book the car park to support and enable large scale events. The car park is home to an observation room that is used by the city council and police to monitor access to events held at the Stadium of Light.

The building also accommodates roof mounted photovoltaic and battery storage system, to supplement the car park energy requirements and EV charging. The roof space and eastern façade also incorporates digital connectivity technology to ensure the city’s 5G and Wi-Fi networks are seamless for customers throughout their use of the car park and pedestrian journey across the new Riverside community.

Cllr Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, says: “Sunderland has a strong association with light, so it’s fitting that the new spaces we are creating as we transform the city centre should feature it so spectacularly in their design.”

Jury comment The Sunderland Riverside car park is the first physical manifestation of a major regeneration of this North East city. The striking structure is literally a beacon of hope, illuminating the skyline with its striking façade’s lightshow while attractive landscaping programmes also symbolise regrowth.

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The Riverside Sunderland car park

The observation room

Rooftop photovoltaic panels

Planting at the car park

Illuminating the façade

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

A picture of good health

Lucas Fernandes, Ivo Demirov and Vaso Vaina (Stripe Consulting), Tristan Chapman (Dorset County Hospital), Iain Saunders, Vikki Town, Beth Whitehouse, Laura Pocknell, Guy Kippen and Paul Thatcher (Prime), Brannan Coady (YourParkingSpace, category sponsor), Harry Noakes (Willmott Dixon) and Mark Steel

Best Hospital Car Park Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester The Dorset County Hospital’s car park plan was integral to its strategic estates masterplan, with the delivery of every project planned for the next 10 years resting on the success of this parking scheme.

With too few parking spaces for patients, staff and visitors, Dorset County Hospital was congested and finding a space was difficult. Survey results found that staff, patients and visitors were suffering from stress and anxiety due to parking difficulties.

This was impacting staff recruitment and retention and affecting wellbeing. Nearby residents were complaining about hospital users parking on the surrounding roads as it was too difficult to park on site.

Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust worked with Prime, a property developer specialising in the health sector, to find a solution. Prime’s proposal was to build a 654-space multistorey on a sloping site next to a conservation area that also overlooked an Area of Natural Beauty that surrounded half the town.

The car park was funded by the trust with Prime and not by the NHS. This meant money and resources were not taken away from patient care. The car park has enabled the implementation of a wider hospital masterplan – part of the government’s New Hospitals Programme – without impacting the hospital and its services. Freeing up space on site allows the trust to extend its Emergency Department and Critical Care Unit. It also enables the trust to provide key worker housing to help recruit and retain staff, an integrated care hub, a new and improved entrance and a hospital support centre for non-clinical staff.

The car park was delivered by main contractor Willmott Dixon Award sponsored by

working with architect Stripe Consulting and HUBER car park systems. The multi-storey has a steel frame with in-situ concrete deck built around a vertical circulation module (VCM) approach with precast stair cores and retaining walls.

The project includes 56 dedicated disabled parking spaces located immediately outside the main hospital entrance. The car park is managed 24/7 by the hospital security team. There is full CCTV coverage throughout the car park along with disabled call points on every floor. The car park is lit with low-energy LED fittings which are light and movement sensitive to avoid disruption through light spill and energy waste. Anti-jump measures include fully enclosed levels and a top floor minimum height of 2.1 metres with an inward cranked wire system to deter climbing.

From the outset the aim was to use to the façade to support the hospital’s Arts in Hospital charitable organisation. The theme chosen by the trust’s staff was landscapes and landmarks that illustrated the hospital’s catchment area. The images were selected via a public vote open to staff, hospital users and the wider community. The top three choices were Portland Bill, Durdle Door and Corfe Castle, which have been captured on perforated metal panels on the car park’s exterior. A green corridor has been created around the car park, planted with hedgerows and wildflowers, to provide a buffer zone between vehicles and wildlife.

Bird boxes within the gabion wall around the car park. hedgehog nesting boxes and insect-friendly foliage have also been planted.

Nick Johnson, deputy chief executive of Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, says: “The construction of the multistorey car park marks a major milestone in our plans to develop our hospital site. As well as improving parking for our patients, staff and visitors, the car park will free up the space we need to expand our clinical facilities and allow us to continue to provide outstanding care for years to come.”

Jury comment The new multi-storey car park at Dorset County Hospital has enabled the NHS trust to free up what had been surface parking to make space for new services and worker housing. This is a well designed car park that has been designed in a way that is sensitive to its surroundings.

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Dorset County Hospital MSCP

Internal signage

Clearspan interior

Insect hotel

The façade

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

Sean Allsop (Makers), Polly Church and Harry Smith (Potter Church & Holmes Architects), Sian McGoun (Cushman & Wakefield), Willy McCrimmon and Joe Marler (Makers), Mark Steel, Richard Bowyer and Tony Mills (Triflex), Simon Lamb and Darren Wootton (Makers), and David Peach (jury)

A car park reborn Best Car Park Renovation Podium Parking, Bath The Bath Podium car park and adjoining Hilton Hotel had been chalked up for demolition, but when Strathclyde Pension Fund bought the buildings it had other ideas.

The pension fund has an ambitious sustainability framework and knocking down a concrete building would be a catastrophe from an environmental perspective, but it believed saving the existing structure would be less carbon expensive than demolition and replacement.

DTZinvestors, working on behalf of Strathclyde Pension Fund, worked with lead architect Potter Church & Holmes (PCH-a) and a team of experts, devised a way to save the building.

The Podium car park is located in the centre of town on an incredibly tight plot on the banks of the River Avon. It was thus not a straightforward project. The car park is a 525-space facility serving not only a Waitrose store, the Library and the Hilton Hotel, but also all the visitors to Bath’s historic city centre as well as to the Christmas market and rugby stadium. It was built back in 1972 using the available technology. Fifty years on and the concrete slabs are, for the most part, as they were originally constructed, but had suffered considerable damage from the ravages of weather and increased demand traffic. The building was starting to fail and did not meet modern building regulations.

Stripe Consulting carried out an extensive structural survey.

Its findings demonstrated to the client that with intelligent design and careful planning, the car park operator Cushman Wakefield could implement a 50-year Life Care Plan, that would save the car park from demolition and continue to support the Hilton Hotel above. After a series of tests and samples, materials supplier Triflex and refurbishment contractor Makers designed a membrane system which increased and promoted base adhesion and stabilised what was a poor concrete matrix.

Bath is the UK’s second most visited city after London. Redesigning a 1970s Brutalist multi-storey car park in a UNESCO World Heritage location was a challenge. The team had to choose the materials that complied with the Bath Pattern Book, a

54 | THE WINNERS

document which sets out what materials can be used when building in specific contexts in the city.

A key challenge was securing the car park. The entire car park could be accessed from the basement as well as street level without the need for a ticket, which meant that it was a popular place for rough sleepers to seek shelter. Visitors arriving in Bath would often be met with vagrants and homeless people in the car park and at night the building felt very unsafe and exposed. As a result, there needed to be a 24-hour security patrol of the building.

The car park was also open on all elevations and at every level, with no safety features in place to protect people from falling.

After careful consideration, the architects chose Webnet, a slimline metal mesh that would provide the necessary protection, while not making the car park feel enclosed. Because Webnet is invisible when viewed from the outside, it had no impact on the wider context and views, which is why Webnet has been used on a number of other UNESCO protected sites around the UK. The building also needed to be secured at pavement level. As the existing stair cores accessed all levels, PCH-a designed two new secure ones – Core 2 and Core 3 – to ensure that only those with parking tickets could gain access. The revised stair cores needed to be low maintenance, comply with strict fire safety regulations and meet the client’s high sustainability criteria, while also fitting with the Bath Pattern Book’s requirements. For the stair cores, the architects came up with two very individual designs. Core 2 was set back from the street and sits in a courtyard, so the Bath Pattern book stipulated that only Iroko wood can be used. While Core 2 was in a courtyard, Core 3 had very tight site constraints as it opened directly onto Walcott Street and the enclosure and doors could not encroach onto the narrow pavement. As Core 3 is streetside the Bath Pattern book allowed the use of black metal combined with a glass roof.

Once people were inside, the car park’s old wayfinding was confusing and inaccurate, with different levels indicated in the lifts to what was described. Therefore, a new wayfinding strategy that was clear and legible was needed, especially important for international tourists or those visiting Bath and the car park for the first time. PCH-a’s solution was a striking, supersized, clean font and a bold colour coding system on the walls and decks.

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Core 2

Each floor level is coded in a different colour, with pink for Level B1, green for Level B2 and orange for Level B3. This not only gives the car park a modern and brighter, more welcoming look and feel, it is much easier to navigate around.

The car park had no EV charging points and no source of onsite renewable energy. As being ready for more sustainable future, was key to Strathclyde Pension Fund’s environmental agenda, the car park now has 10 EV chargepoints, the only ones in the centre of Bath. Due to the power and set-up of the substation, Bath Podium has the capacity to run a further 100 EV chargepoints as demand increases. Moving the car park from a short-stay (max 4 hours) to long-stay (24 hours) has also meant that hotel visitors can recharge their cars overnight, encouraging people to use their electric cars. Some 208 solar panels have been installed on the adjacent Waitrose store’s roof, which is within the demise of the car park developer. This solar installation provides electricity for the car park, offsetting the lighting, carbon monoxide fans, payment machines and Waitrose’s lighting. In the future energy storage batteries can be added, giving the option to power the car park lighting when solar PV sourced energy is not available.

Polly Church, director at PCH-a and architect on the project, says: “Bath Podium was always going to be a challenging project.

To begin with, saving an unsightly 1960s concrete car park from demolition wasn’t a popular decision. Add to that the tricky city centre location, the fact it’s in Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and that we had to work through a global pandemic, it’s safe to say there was plenty of scope for things to go wrong. The fact that the British Parking Awards have recognised the success of the Bath Podium project with this award is testament to the hard work and dedication of the amazing team of people and businesses who all pulled together to create such a stand out project.”

The interior: Before renovation

Jury comment The Bath Podium project sets a powerful precedent. With a large number of concrete car parks from the 1960s and ‘70s now nearing the end of their perceived lifespan around the country, this project proves that demolition and rebuild is not the only way to go. Renovation proved a successful and far more sustainable choice.

The interior: After renovation

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BRITISH PARKING AWARDS

APCOA UK’s Mark Trumper and Stephen Rickett with Mark Steel and jury member Steve Thompson

Powering the future EV Champion of the Year APCOA UK APCOA Parking is making the transition from being an operator of parking spaces to being a provider of mobility and electric vehicle charging services.

APCOA is one of Europe’s largest parking services providers, operating more than 1.5 million spaces at 9,500 locations across 13 countries. The company has made a Europe-wide commitment to achieve net zero by 2030. Investment in EV infrastructure to meet the EV charging needs of electric vehicle drivers is now a critical part of APCOA’s business model.

The group has set a goal of installing 10,000 chargepoints in the UK by 2025, both on-street and off-street. APCOA has made a long-term commitment to look after the entire contract life of the chargepoints rather than just the initial installation. This means APCOA is now working as both a CPO (chargepoint operator) and an MSP (mobility service provider).

APCOA has also appointed a dedicated director of EV partnerships and energy infrastructure, Mark Trumper.

To date APCOA has deployed over 1,000 EV chargers (Fast, Rapid and Ultra Rapids) across retail, hospitality, health, rail and airports. Key sites include Maidstone Borough Council, Network Rail, NHS Royal Stoke University Hospital, Q Hotels and New River Retail and London Borough of Bromley, as well as at its first Urban Mobility Hub location in Carmarthen in Wales.

Projects are run in strict compliance with APCOA’s Health & Safety Policy and ISO 45001 standards alongside the current CDM regulations. This sees APCOA appoint a single responsible person for any EV project compliance. This includes the production and approval of the H&S file with relevant Risk Assessments and Method Statement for each site location (RAMS).

APCOA can now generate report activity on electricity utilisation (kWh), numbers and types of transactions through APCOA Analytics. This is the company’s interactive business intelligence tool, accessed through Microsoft Power BI, from which it is able to self-serve and access reports and interactive dashboards. It provides information in real-time, with the ability to fully

56 | THE WINNERS

customise, making collaborating and sharing simple.

Members of the public requiring help on a range of issues from practical help on chargepoint operation, payment issues, or technical help can contact APCOA’s National Customer Service Centre (NCSC) with offices in Wigan and Dingwall. The NCSC has a team of 90-plus agents and is operational 24/7/365 managing customer enquiries relating to EV chargepoints across the UK and other car park related enquiries.

The company has developed three distinct means of payments: for parking and EV charging: • Registered user payment via APCOA Connect: used in over 1,400 car parks in the UK with over 5 million registered users • Payment via ScanPay: a QR-based payment solution • Contactless payments: an add-on module.

Network Rail APCOA has managed station parking for Network Rail since 2014, but in January 2023 a new partnership agreement was finalised, combining Network Rail’s prime site infrastructure with APCOA’s management expertise, dedicated customer service resource and market leading technological capability. The partnership currently encompasses 462 EV charging points across six Network Rail sites with a one strategy, one system approach which fully supports the sustainability goals of both industries and facilitates the extensive use of EV charging facilities at these rail stations.

Lewis Smith, head of national contracts and business development at Network Rail, says: “APCOA has demonstrated strong technological developments and improvements, operational and cost saving efficiencies, whilst not detracting from the customer service and operational and financial performance. APCOA has also helped Network Rail improve car park assets across the estate, with strong multi-contractor specialisms and support.”

Urban Mobility Hubs Designed around a convenient central location, accessible to the public and able to offer a variety of services all in one place, hubs are ideal sites at which to display local information and switch from one mode of transport to another. Urban Hubs contribute significantly to APCOA’s ongoing commitment to sustainability

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Tesla chargers at the Urban Mobility Hub in Carmarthen, South Wales whilst tailored services ensure that these prime sites offer more value to the local community.

Alongside other customer centric facilities such as vending, pre-bookable office pods, bike charging and storage, APCOA’s Carmarthen Urban Mobility Hub also delivered a total of 17 new EV charging points for the 200,000 residents of the town and for those visiting. The Tesla chargers required the installation of an additional electrical substation, for which planning applications were required – all managed and overseen by APCOA as part of the contract. The site boasts five 22kw AC fast chargers supplied

by Compleo, and 12 V3 Tesla Superchargers, capable of delivering peak charge rates up to 250kW. Kim Challis, regional managing director for APCOA UK & Ireland, says: “APCOA is extremely proud to have won the ‘EV Champion of the Year’ award at the British Parking Awards. This award is presented to an organisation which has had a significant impact on progressing the transition to EV driving in the UK and it represents meaningful recognition for APCOA, for whom sustainability and the commitment to accelerating electrification are key drivers of the business strategy.

“We are really delighted that APCOA’s EV strategy has received such positive recognition as we continue to deliver our plan to achieve the ambitious goal of installing 10,000 chargepoints in the UK (on-street and off-street) by 2025.”

Compleo chargepoints at Reading station’s car park

Jury comment APCOA is in the vanguard of parking operators that have made a decision to embrace the opportunities presented by the transition to electric vehicles.

The company is transforming its business model so that it can become a key supplier of charging and mobility services to motorists.

Award presented by

www.EVolutionMagazine.co.uk

The Urban Mobility Hub concept

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Making the connections that are transforming our world

Congratulations to all winners and finalists of the

As headline sponsor, we look forward to welcoming you again in 2024

mipermit.com

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MATTHEW WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY

Re-energising parking

Q-Park’s Sarosh Mehta, James Pollock, Monaza Salam and John Denton

EV Chargepoint Provider of the Year Q-Park Q-Park is a parking infrastructure owner and operator with more than 640,000 spaces in over 3,300 commercial car parks across seven Western European countries. Q-Park sites tend to be located in the heart of cities. In the UK company has a strong presence in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester.

Q-Park mainly operates off-street parking spaces which it either owns or runs long-term leases from public and private landlords.

Q-Park recognises that the world around it is changing and that it, therefore, must change the way its parking facilities are operated to keep pace with the way city centres are evolving. The company is seeking to do this by working with a range of partners who provide expertise in areas such as zero-emission mobility.

With bans soon to be in place on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in the UK and across Europe, Q-Park feels it is imperative that new electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is installed so they were best placed to meet an expected upsurge in charging demands.

Q-Park has signed a deal with EB Charging for the installation of over 600 new EV charging points across the country with an investment figure of over £3m. The addition of these chargers adds to Q-Park’s already expansive network of city centre charging infrastructure in the country, numbering over 250 public EV charging points across its asset portfolio.

Q-Park has been creating Sustainable Mobility Hubs, facilities that see parking facilities transformed into instruments that help Award presented by

www.EVolutionMagazine.co.uk

realise urban accessibility, sustainability and liveability. In addition to car parking, Q-Park is also aiming to provide access for shared mobility schemes, electric vehicle charging, last mile delivery and retail space all within their safe and secure parking facilities. The Park Lane Mobility Hub in Central London is a large car park underneath Hyde Park. As well as parking, tenants at the site include BP, DPD, Enterprise, UFODrive and ByBox. A number of mobility hub schemes are being implemented at other locations in London, with bicycle parking being installed at Oxford Street and Soho.

John Denton, head of commercial at Q-Park UK and Ireland says: “Liveability in urban areas is vitally important, and we are delighted to help support more emission-free miles being driven with good quality charging infrastructure. Our comprehensive EV charging point roll-out has been progressing throughout the country in 2023 and it’s especially pleasing that we can expand our offering into cities where previously we didn’t have any.”

EV chargers in a Q-Park

Jury comment Q-Park has long been at the forefront of developing and operating attractive car parks where customer service is paramount. The operator has now embraced the idea of being a provider of electric chargepoints that will enable its network of sites develop in mobility hubs and service hubs.

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A Papilio3 unit at Silverstone

Harvesting sunshine EV Charging Technology of the Year Papilio3 Solar Car Park 3ti has developed Papilio3, a pop-up electric vehicle charging hub designed to address the poorly served middle ground between domestic and rapid or ultra-rapid charging.

The solar car park approach offers a possible solution to many of the challenges facing the UK; boosting the EV charging infrastructure; supporting electric vehicle (EV) take-up; and providing control over energy costs and supply.

The Papilio3 Solar Car Park is a product developed by 3ti, a designer, installer, funder and operator of large-scale solar car parks (SCPs). 3ti stands for ‘Three Technology Infrastructure’: solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation, EV charging and battery energy storage systems (BESS). By installing these technologies in car parks, 3ti seeks to turn otherwise underutilised spaces into valuable renewable energy-generating assets, providing customers with greater control of energy costs, security of supply and reduced carbon content in the electricity they use.

3ti says that while the most convenient and cost-efficient form of EV charging is performed at home, this is not possible for around 50% of EV drivers. The company is seeking to alter EV drivers’ mindsets, encouraging them to move away from the traditional forecourt refuel “stop to charge” model of rapid chargers and adopt a more convenient “charge where you stop” mentality.

Some 90% of UK journeys are under 50 miles, and 95% are under 100 miles, says 3ti. The average length of a journey in the UK is 20 miles. With an optimised EV infrastructure in place, electrification is the optimal source of motive power to deliver on net zero targets and decarbonise the UK transport sector.

Award sponsored by

Based around a recycled shipping container, Papilio3 is a popup alternative to a large-scale solar car park. 3ti says it can be installed in under eight hours, providing a solution that can rapidly accelerate EV adoption through the provision of charging infrastructure. It is a single-unit solution capable of standardised production for rapid scale-up and deployment.

The company says suitable locations for Papilio3 placement include hospitals, hotels, meeting venues, sports or shopping centres, tourist attractions and town centres. Each unit offers sheltered, illuminated and secure parking, plus a convenient, available and reliable EV charging experience.

The prototype unit became operational in May 2022 at the Surrey Research Park, which has since extended its contract for a further two years following positive feedback from tenants in a user survey. Some 85% of those surveyed said they were ‘very satisfied’ with the reliability of the chargepoints, and 15% said they were ‘satisfied’. The respondents rated the overall charging experience of Papilio3 highly, with 77% of respondents saying they were ‘very satisfied’ and 23% stating they were ‘satisfied’.

Papilio3 generated 14MWh in the first 12 months, the equivalent of powering an average family EV over 52,000 miles.

Over the past year 3ti has installed units in high profile locations including the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire and Bentley Motors headquarters in Crewe.

Each location undergoes a 63-point assessment by ChargeSafe, the independent chargepoint assessment and accreditation body.

This ensures that the design, location, facilities, functionality and accessibility of every Papilio3 charging hub meets the needs of all users as the network of units expands.

3ti has growth targets that aim to have 500 Papilio3 units in operation across the country by 2027, adding 6,000 public chargepoints to the UK’s infrastructure.

Jury comment The 3tI Papilio3 is a trailblazing system that proves it is possible to harness solar power to charge electric vehicles at locations where connecting chargepoints to the grid is diificult. This is an approach that will help address range anxiety among EV drivers.

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