The best of British parking was celebrated today when comedian Hal Cruttenden revealed the winners of the 15th British Parking Awards at the Lancaster London Hotel. Over 500 people from across the worlds of car park design, construction, management and technology attended the event. The awards showcased excellence in the design of parking facilities, exceptional customer service and innovative thinking. This year projects that deliver real benefit to local communities made a particular impact.
The ceremony started with Operation Blue Bird, a project that seeks to deter the misuse of Blue Badges, picking up the Parking in the Community Award. This multi-agency project involves Brighton & Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council, Sussex Police and contractor NSL. Besides detecting and prosecuting permit fraudsters, Operation Blue Bird shows people found misusing Blue Badges a video that explains what impact their selfishness has on disabled people. The project has received funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government's Counter Fraud Fund, which is enabling the team to share their experiences with other local authorities. Operation Blue Bird went on to collect the Parking Partnerships trophy.
The renovation of the Purple Car Park at the intu Merry Hill shopping centre in the West Midlands won the Best Car Park Refurbishment. The middle floor of this multi-storey had been closed for several years due to corrosion problems. Intu Properties hired USL StructureCare to repair these problems and then create a brighter and more inviting environment for shoppers.
The specialist skills needed to refurbish car parks has led one contractor, Makers Construction, to devise an apprenticeship scheme. The company's long-term investment in skills development saw it receive a Special Jury Award.
Next came the Exceptional Customer Service Award, which was collected by Phoenix Commercial Collections. This civil enforcement agency has worked with the Citizen Advice Bureau and Money Advice Trust developed a sensitive approach to recovering road traffic debts. The approach sees Phoenix working with people who have found it hard to pay penalty charge notices to manage their debts.
The awards recognise emerging talent in the parking sector. This year's Young Parking Professional was Yoofi Halm, a data analyst working for contractor APCOA UK & Ireland in the London Borough of Southwark. Halm has transformed the council and contractor's use of performance and activity reports and is now working on the use of a mobile system called SCANaCAR to enforce 'digital parking rights' covering the council's phone parking and paperless permit system.
The London Borough of Brent was named Parking Team of the Year in recognition of its commitment to improving the parking experience of residents, businesses and visitors. It has moved to a virtual parking permit system and is working to tackle anti-social parking around schools. The council has also worked to tackle parking problems around Wembley Stadium.
A pair of Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented on the day. The first was awarded to John McArdle, a parking manager who has worked in the public and private sector in Scotland and England. He has been a member of the British Parking Association's Executive Council for almost 20 years, and is currently its honorary treasurer. The second Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Kelvin Reynolds, the BPA's director of policy and public affairs, in recognition of his work championing the Safer Parking Scheme and Approved Operators Scheme as well as his commitment to promoting skills development and innovation in the parking sector.
Two innovative ideas were recognised in the Intelligent Parking category. Drivers who challenge PCNs can wait weeks to find out if their initial challenge has succeeded. The first award winner in this category, Barbour Logic's RM Self-Serve, enables drivers who have been issued with a PCN to visit the council's website to check the reasons why they were ticketed and assess the likelihood of a challenge succeeding in a matter of minutes.
The second Intelligent Parking Award was presented to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Cale UK for the Check-in/Check-Out payment system. While the council offers phone parking as an alternative to pay & display in its car parks many residents wanted a cashless option that did not involve setting up an account linked to a payment card. The Check-In/Check-Out system enables drivers to authorise a parking transaction at a pay station in the car park on arrival. They link their card details to their vehicle via keypad on the machine. When they want to leave the car park, the driver inserts their card into the terminal and the system calculates their check-out fee.
There were a trio of awards for new car parks. The new staff car park at National Grid's headquarters in Warwick was named Best New Car Park. As the car park is visible from Warwick Castle the structure needed to have its lines softened. National Grid decided to create a green wall on the castle-facing elevation. The green wall comprises 97,000 plants that reduce the car park's carbon footprint and provide a habitat for birds, insects and bees. The project was delivered by One World Architects, ANS, Cundall and Goldbeck Construction.
A special Architectural Award was presented to English Cities Fund for the New Bailey car park in Salford. This striking building is the lead structure in a new urban quarter. Its colourful façade is designed to look as if the building is wrapped in ribbons. One corner of the car park also features a spire that is an architectural nod to Salford Cathedral. The car park was designed by Aedas, engineered by Hill Cannon, built by Morgan Sindall and is operated by NCP.
The Best Surface Car Park was the Park & Depart at Aberdeen International Airport. Designed and built by APCOA Parking, this project had to feature sustainable urban drainage systems to protect local salmon rivers. Its proximity to the runway meant lighting had to be designed so as not to distract pilots. The plants used also had to keep birds to a minimum, in order to minimise the risk of bird-strikes on aircraft. The car park is also regularly patrolled by a Harris Hawk to scare off birds.
The diversity of the parking sector meant that a celebration of the built environment was followed by a look at digital services. The Parking Futures category showcased the growing importance of apps and online services in connecting people and their cars with parking. The winner was Appy Parking, a smartphone app that allows drivers to understand local street parking regulations, find parking bays, electric charging stations and the nearest and cheapest fuel. The AppyParking team have also been trialling parking payment functions.
The work of those on the front line of parking was also recognised. The first of two Front Line Awards was presented to Charlene Charles, APCOA's customer service agent for its Southwark contract. Charles liaises with the management team and on-site staff to resolve queries and concerns raised by drivers in a courteous and professional manner. She also ensures that her customer service team fully understand the parking appeals process from initial PCN stage through to the debt recovery stage.
The second Front Line Award recognised the achievements of the PCN team at G4S Cash Solutions. The need to park close to bank and business premises means the cash-in-transit company's vehicles sometimes break parking rules. When the annual parking penalty bill for London alone reached £1m the company's acted. A team led by Paul Stinson set about reviewing where its liveried vehicles were being ticketed then trained drivers in observing loading rules. At the same time, Stinson's team worked with local authorities and Transport for London to review parking and loading restrictions at existing locations and for new developments.
Plymouth City Council was presented with the Inspiration Award, again for its work in the community. The Plymouth parking team not only raises funds for local charities and good causes, but also provided job coaching for ex-offenders and mentors the long-term unemployed. They have also created designated spaces for dementia sufferers and their carers in car parks.
The event's finalé was the announcement of the Parking Person of the Year Award. This honour was bestowed on Conwy Council's Emma Anthony. She started working in the North Wales town's parking team as an attendant ten years ago and has risen the ranks to become parking manager. Her hands-on approach is credited with expanding the team's remit to support road safety and school crossing teams, as well as revising parking restrictions to meet the needs of residents and businesses.
The British Parking Awards were launched by Parking Review magazine in 2002 and are organised by Landor LINKS. The entries are judged by a panel of experts drawn from the public and private parking sectors and transport consultancies, as well as motoring and other road user organisations.
Inspiration Award - Plymouth City Council
Parking Person of the Year - Emma Anthony, parking manager, Conwy Council
Parking in the Community Award - Operation Blue Bird Operation Blue Bird (Brighton & Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council, Sussex Police and NSL)
Special Jury Award - Makers Construction apprenticeship scheme
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