British Parking Awards: Parking in the Community finalists

Parking in the Community Award, sponsored by Bemrose Mobile

Aberdeen City Council: City wardens
Aberdeen’s wardens do more than just enforce parking, they work with community groups and seek to make residents feel safer.

Alana Donald, marketing officer, Aberdeen City Council: The role of the City Warden was designed by Aberdeen City Council in order to provide a flexible service that works at the grass roots level and responds to the needs of the communities. The service was formed in January 2009 by redesigning the roles and responsibilities that were previously undertaken by parking enforcement officers, environmental wardens and community wardens. These old posts had limitations as there were restrictions on the times and locations that the services were in operation.

This innovative service now sees 74 ‘City Wardens’ help to deter antisocial behaviour, littering and illegal parking in all 36 neighbourhoods between 7am and 10.30pm daily, with the flexibility to work outside of these hours when required.

Since winning the Parking in the Community award at the British Parking Awards 2011 the City Wardens have continued to work for and with the wider community in Aberdeen.

In 2012 the City Wardens embarked on two projects. The first widens their profile within local communities and educates the public about the service that is provided. By holding public meetings and producing their own newsletter the City Wardens have shown that they care about the issues taking place in Aberdeen city. Their constant presence reassures residents that someone is there to listen and act on their concerns.

The second provides much needed help to children affected by the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1986. The charity was so impressed by the work of the wardens that they asked senior City Warden Davie Henderson to become their new chairman, thus ensuring that the good work of the charity continues. Without the work of the City Wardens this may not have been possible.

London Borough of Bromley: The Bromley zig-zag study
A desire to understand why drivers, including many parent, park dangerously outside schools, led to Bromley undertaking a major behavioural study.

Beverley Pharo, parking customer and communications officer, London Borough of Bromley: The Bromley zig-zag study documents the council’s endeavours to keep children, pedestrians and other road users safe outside schools. The study involves trials of innovative deterrents (including deploying cut-out CEOs), engaging with parents and carers, undertaking surveys and comparing the psychology of male and female drivers to help identify reasons for particular types of behaviour.

We spent time with mums, dads and carers at the school gates. We listened to what the school community had to say about themselves and other parking on school zig-zags. We also conducted a postal survey with very interesting results. The findings revealed that the school community is not unanimous in their views – zig-zag parking is an acceptable practice to some!

A whole user group didn’t believe they were doing wrong. Others only avoided parking on them because they might get caught. Much of this information has only been anecdotal for many years, but now we have the facts.”

The outcome has highlighted the fundamental importance of continuously educating motorists and raising awareness of the dangers of parking incorrectly,

Plus Dane Group: Beautiful North Community Car Park, Liverpool
A former school site located between Everton and Liverpool FC’s stadiums has been turned into a match day car park that raises funds for the local community.

Anne Lundon, income and new opportunities manager, Plus Dane Group: The Beautiful North is a ‘coalition of willing’ organisations across the public, private and community sector who are investing the staff time, budgets and ideas to deliver different approaches to making things happen in North Liverpool.

There are now more than 40 organisations who have responded to a call from Liverpool City Council cabinet members who asked partners to be involved in the solution to local problems identified by local residents and businesses and offer a joined up solution to the problem using existing not additional resources.

The 600-space Beautiful North Community Car Park is situated on the former Anfield Comprehensive school site in North Liverpool. The school was demolished under the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme and whilst the site is awaiting development the Beautiful North partners submitted an idea to Liverpool City Council to use the school footprint as a community venture car park on Liverpool FC and Everton FC match days.

The site of the community car park is unique because it sits between the two major football clubs in Merseyside. The proposal to use the site as a community car park on football match days included a detailed plan showing how all the income generated would be invested back into the surrounding areas of Anfield, Kirkdale, County and Everton, some of the most deprived wards in the Country, through investment in local projects and job creation and in January 2012 Liverpool agreed the proposal.

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, APCOA Parking, Keltic Clothing, Newlyn Collections: Working together for you!
Sandwell’s parking team has been working with private sector partners to educate children about the dangers of cars parked near school and also kept the Olympic Torch moving.

Olympic Torch Relay: The Sandwell parking team was involved in the Olympic Torch relay, which passed through the borough. The project involved the management of all routes to allow safe passage of the procession vehicles and the torch bearers.

Around 25,000 people are estimated to have lined the streets of Sandwell, with a further 5,000 watching at the Sandwell-Birmingham border.

A further 80,00 attended the Sandwell and Birmingham Mela, the biggest festival on the Asian calendar, at Victoria Park.

Sandwell was one of the few authorities that allowed free parking and called all penalty charge notices and removal fees on this day.

Road safety campaign in schools: Sandwell and APCOA worked in partnership for the public to help improve safety around school entrances and approaches. The project is part of an initiative in Sandwell which aims to bridge the gap in road safety that has been created by current fiscal pressures.

Having put children as a priority risk, some form of road safety education needed to be made available to schools for children aged 5-6.

To achieve this objective sponsors were required to produce a product that today’s children could relate to and use to gain knowledge.