Proud to be ambitious

Newcastle Parking Services keeps the city running year round

The North East Parking Show was the first of its kind in the region. I was amazed at the level of attendees and the distance some had travelled. When I set out arranging the event with Landor LINKS, I had a vision. I wanted Newcastle and the North East to have an event on our doorstep. An event that would enable all parking services staff to be involved and to network with colleagues from across the country. It would be a day that would showcase some of the latest innovations as well as the very positive work that Newcastle City Council Parking Services does across the region.

The event gave me the opportunity to invite all 100-plus Newcastle City Council parking staff to attend for periods throughout the day and for staff volunteers to be able to showcase their work and the pride that they take in their work. I would like to thank all of the volunteers for all their time and effort in putting on such a fantastic display. Hopefully delegates will have noticed that Newcastle City Council had a strap line of “Proud, fair and ambitious”. It was even on my lanyard, on some of the stalls and was the theme of the opening speeches on the day. Parking Services is often seen in a negative light. There is an all too common a perception that the only purpose of parking is to raise revenue. Now that is a myth I’d like to dismiss.

Have you ever heard about how an event in Newcastle was tarnished because the thousands of fans coming into the city couldn’t park? No, You won’t, because behind the scenes, the city’s parking services team, which is often not appreciated and not noticed by the public for events, help to make the events a success.

Keeping the Great North Run moving
I have the utmost admiration for anyone that has taken part in the Great North Run – as anyone can probably tell from looking at me, I’ve never done the run and have no aspirations of ever doing so! But the event itself is an amazing spectacle and I am proud that parking services plays a key role in supporting this internationally renowned event. It is the world’s largest half marathon. Over 57,000 runners have taken part and this year, for its 40th anniversary, it hopes to attract a record-breaking number 60,000 participants! It’s not only important for the runners but it is an international event that gets global coverage. It is an event that puts Newcastle City Council, and our neighbouring authorities firmly on the map. And it brings a significant amount of money from participants and visitors alike.

Parking services suspends bays that are part of logistics in support of the event, cones areas where necessary, and polices areas with a supportive approach and significant presence to try and get the vehicle moved on as soon as a parking contravention occurs, so that they do not get a penalty charge notice (PCN), and that the area remains clear. Obviously, this also means directing and advising where people can park.

Making a magical weekend
The economic benefits from the hosting of events for the city are widespread. For rugby fans, Magic Weekend is returning to Newcastle this May. We have hosted this event many times. After one year away it is returning. Why, because the city makes it a successful event.

We have the logistic issue of over 100 large coaches coming into the city and no dedicated car park big enough to house them all. We have a large-scale staff presence on the day, guiding the buses to where to park on double yellow restrictions. Staff are present all day. Supporting the coaches and the fans, ensuring existing bus stops and crossings are not blocked by the buses. We support overflow car parks. We provide advice and guidance for cars struggling to park near to the stadium, especially with road closures that are in place every match day.

Supporting The Magpies
Newcastle is in a unique position that on a match day, we have a 52,000-seater stadium – St James’ Park, the home of Newcastle United FC –  right bang in the middle of the city centre. Again, in order to ensure all 52,000 fans can move around the city and stadia safely, it’s important to manage parking.

We close the streets near the ground for crowd safety, which involved coning large areas as well as placing signage very early in the day and, of course, removing these restrictions once the match has finished. We provide an extra presence in permit areas near the ground so that residents don’t have issues parking near to their home on match days. We inspect as many disabled bays as possible every match day that are the closest to the ground to ensure they remain in use by Blue Badge holders only.

Delivering events in harmony
Besides sports, Newcastle hosts a host of cultural events. We recently had Ed Sheeran concerts at St James’ Park that attracted sell-out crowds. We kept some of our multi-storey car parks open for two hours longer than their planned closure to cater for the concert finishing. Newcastle’s New Year’s Eve celebrations went on long into the night and so we supported the celebrations with car parks that would normally close at midnight staying open all night. This involved staff working overtime, with no income coming from those parking.

These examples clearly demonstrate that parking is not the negative thing that people read about. Parking is about managing the demand of the highway. The way in which Newcastle’s parking staff are able to adapt and work on major events is something I am extremely proud of and helps the city be ambitious in hosting major events.

Car parks that work for all
Another project we have engaged on over the last 12 months is Eldon Square multi-storey, our flagship car park. Located right in the heart of the city centre and directly adjoining onto John Lewis and intu’s Eldon Square shopping centre, it is our busiest car park.

In terms of scale, in 2018-19, we had 129,000 coin paying customers, 123,000 card customers (which is still continuing to grow at a rapid rate), and 104,000 PayByPhone customers. When you include Alive after Five customers and Blue Badge holders, approximately 500,000 vehicles entered the car park last year. I always look at the car park from a parking perspective. Are the bay markings and signage clear? Are the payment methods clear? Are the terms and conditions clearly documented?

But I was conscious that this car park is special in that the majority of customers are all shoppers. So parking services engaged with intu and NE1 to find out how they viewed the car park and find out what they would do if they were running the car park. The result is some significant improvements, including a complete overhaul of tariff board signage due later this year and some aesthetic improvements such as pillar protectors part funded by intu and NE1 due to be installed at the end of this month. We are also investing in new touch screen machines, and have embarked on a repainting programme, which has given the car park a much fresher feel and welcoming appearance.

A championship season
I am proud of the fact that Newcastle City Council continues to strive to improve the parking experience for customers. For example, we have created Values Champions who embody ‘proud’, ‘fair’ and ‘ambitious’. On the street and in car parks we employ people that continue to adapt to an ever-changing parking enforcement environment and adapt in their role to support parking in the city. In the back office we have a team of people that ensure that appeals are dealt with in a timely manner. So that our operations stay running smoothly, we have a team of people that ensure that parking maintenance issues are dealt with swiftly. Parking services also encompasses Shopmobility, a service that supports shoppers being able to remain independent.

Newcastle City Council Parking Services is keen to share its experiences and what we feel is best practice. Our staff includes many who give up their own time to design systems that improve the way that the service works or to take part in award entries that help to showcase their work at a national level. It is this approach that I think helped us to win the British Parking Awards Parking Team of the Year trophy and PATROL’s Outstanding Digital Format Award at the PARC Awards 2019.

Proud, fair and ambitious is certainly a vision that parking strives to achieve and is something I value personally.

Steven Foster is team manager at Newcastle Parking Services