Talking together, working together

Enforcement Excellence 2024 discussed issues such as supporting civil soicety, procurement, partnership working and Artificial Intelligence

Enforcement of the regulations that govern how we use the public realm is essential to ensuring a civil society works. This was a key theme at Enforcement Excellence 2024, which explored how public authorities and their private sector partners can encourage the motoring public to comply with regulations in an effective, ethical and transparent manner.

The conference opened with an address by Russell Hamblin-Boone, chief executive of CIVEA, in which he explored how civil debt recovery helps ensure local authorities raises essential revenues for public services.

Carole Kenney, director of welfare, road traffic and road user charging at CDER Group, discussed what can be done to keep front line enforcement staff safe and how the debt recovery sector is working to safeguard vulnerable people.

An operational perspective from the public sector was provided by Michael Wiktorko, service area manager for parking enforcement at Hackney Council, who set out how his team is delivering positive initiatives to improve road safety and air quality such as School Streets and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

Smarter enforcement

An exploration of innovative solutions being used by local authorities, parking operators and enforcement agencies was led by Sharon Silcock, head of sales for enforcement at Yunex Traffic.

Hannah Fuller, head of strategic relationships at Unity5, explored how partnership working and planning enables enforcement teams to leverage the best from new technologies.

Suzanne Varney, director of technology and product development at Trellint, provided an enlightening insight into how to harness the immense power of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Jason Barbour, founder of Barbour Logic, described Voice Master, an AI-driven system that enables drivers to obtain automated advice on penalty appeals over the phone.

Keith Kelly, GovTech business development manager at AppyWay, set out how traffic and parking teams can harness data on vehicles, drivers and patterns of behaviour to identify trends and optimise the deployment of enforcement resources.

Sharing good ideas

Partnership working was the focus of the afternoon’s sessions. Glen Manley, business development director at Marston Holdings, and Trevor Taylor, operations director at Trellint, were joined by Hackney’s Michael Wiktorko for an engrossing conversation about the procurement and provision of parking services.

Tom Gallagher, parking fraud investigations manager at the London Borough of Lambeth discussed fighting Blue Badge fraud via a national day of action and the launch of a new service called the National Blue Badge Administration Centre.

Chris Naylor, head of membership and relations at the International Parking Community, and Sara Roberts, head of the British Parking Association’s Approved Operator Scheme, set out how the trade bodies have cooperated to create a new code of practice for regulating parking on private land.

Alan Wood, chief executive officer of the National Persistent Evader Database (NPED) set out how the initiative is building connections to combat anti-social motorists.

Elizabeth Gilliard, a consultant at First Rail Consultancy, shared insights into how passenger transport operators have been tackling fare evasion and deter anti-social behaviour.

The day concluded with John Mason, managing director at TRACE Group, leading a panel exploring the challenges facing highways authorities, car park operators, property owners, enforcement agencies and transport operators. The panel agreed there is much good practice and expertise to be shared.