Parking Person of the Year: Michael Wiktorko

British Parking Awards 2024

Michael Wiktorko started his journey in the parking sector in 2009 as an apprentice – the top third choice in his application for a council apprenticeship programme that has significantly changed his life. Little did he know then that he would still be in the parking industry 15 years later!

During his career so far Wiktorko has worked with several local authorities as well as a stint in the private sector, but has spent the majority of his career in Hackney Council’s parking services. At the east London borough he has progressed from an apprentice through a wide range of roles in the sector such as parking correspondence officer, permits officer, debt recovery officer, and debt recovery and finance team leader.

In 2018, he became the service area manager for Hackney’s parking enforcement service area where he has achieved great success, made an outstanding contribution to the industry and represents a ‘model of excellence’. More recently he has been promoted to senior service area manager for parking customer services to take his role to the next level and to continue improving the image of parking to the general public.

Changing public perceptions

Parking is often perceived as a service that is designed for revenue generation. Wiktorko has been working extremely hard to tackle this unhelpful stereotype and delivered a number of innovative approaches that helped to change this.

For example, when Hackney Council started the roll-out of new low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) and School Streets schemes, one of the first challenges he faced was pushback from drivers not being aware of the new schemes, constant complaints and reputation-damaging news articles stating that councils were just doing this to bring in cash.

Wiktorko responded by implementing a new process where warning notices are issued instead of penalty charge notices (PCNs) for the initial first phase of new schemes. These warning notices do not carry a financial penalty. There have been tens of thousands of warning notices issued that helped to raise awareness and improve driver compliance with such schemes.

Parking is often seen to deal with permits, car parks and bus lanes – often the most difficult cases are managed following complaints or elected members’ enquiries. Wiktorko has taken proactive steps to implement a new abandoned vehicle policy that enabled the council to take stronger action against vehicles that cause the most nuisance to local communities, often they are used by criminals and attract anti-social behaviour.

Insourced parking enforcement contract

Wiktorko has led his team through a major transformational change – bringing parking enforcement back in-house.

The opportunity came when the outsourced parking enforcement service, which had been provided by an external contractor since 1999, came up for review. The council was facing additional financial pressure to deliver savings and a long-standing dispute between unions and the external contractor. Furthermore, the service suffered very low morale in the workforce along with a high staff turnover rate.

Wiktorko reviewed the contract and the statutory service provision. He managed to find win-win solutions that delivered over £500,000 savings per annum, resolved all outstanding issues with the unions and delivered more effective and higher-performing service for residents by insourcing the service.
His work led to the creation of a new in-sourced parking enforcement team, which was named Team of the Year at the British Parking Awards in 2023.

Rebranding the role

One key aspect of the transformation of parking in Hackney saw Wiktorko design and implement a rebranding of civil enforcement officers as ‘road and traffic enforcement officers’ (RTEO). This change expanded the officers’ role with the aim of combatting long-standing negative stereotypes associated with parking enforcement. In conjunction with the rebranding, a new uniform was designed to give the officers enhanced comfort, improved durability, and adaptability to various weather conditions.

The goal of the rebrand was to present a more approachable and helpful face to the community. For example, the officers are now the “eyes and ears” of the council, ensuring that problems such as vandalism, fly-tipping, graffiti, uncollected waste and anti-social behaviour are reported promptly and no longer rely on residents and businesses to report such issues.

This change has improved the overall image of the enforcement officers which resulted in a reduction of physical and verbal attacks on our staff from 172 attacks in 2020 to 13 in 2023 (representing a 92% reduction).

Transition to a four-day working week

Another bold move in the transformation was the implementation of a four-day working week for RTEOs. This initiative is aimed at improving work-life balance and to provide officers with five consecutive days off every three weeks to rest and take a break from their demanding roles.

The transition has improved the deployment of parking enforcement across the borough as this could now be achieved with a single shift, as opposed to the previous requirement of two shifts to cover the majority of parking restrictions.

The four-day working week is based on nine working hours per day as opposed to seven hours per day which reduced the overall time lost to travel between streets each day (improving time spent on duty and enforcing by 12%).

Previously, staff were required to work on Sunday which has led to problems in recruitment and retention. This was replaced by overtime work that is allocated fairly and in a transparent manner to top performers (based on quality not quantity of enforcement activities). This removed the pressure on the staff who did not want to work on Sunday and created an opportunity to recognise and reward hard-working enforcement colleagues.

The new rota provides for a “team day” every Wednesday, which provides an opportunity for training and individual check-ins to take place without affecting service delivery.

Local knowledge and community support

Parking services has expanded the use of controlled parking zones (CPZ) over the past decade, moving from 64% coverage in 2011/12 to 100% in 2022/23. The borough has been split into three districts with regards to parking enforcement.

Officers are deployed in their districts all the time and are not rotated between different locations on a random or rotational basis. This ensures they build local knowledge, provide community support and act as the face of the council by providing further information and advice about parking restrictions, permits, processes and consultations. This allows the managers to train officers with information specific to their district, as opposed to training on all issues, enabling officers to become familiar with locations that are normally compliant, and locations where there is a higher chance of drivers being aggressive, along with fully understanding and being sensitive to local community needs.

Engagement and satisfaction

Wiktorko puts his team at the forefront of service delivery – something that he learned very early in his career. He promised himself that if he ever became a manager he would focus on staff wellbeing first. He learned and adopted the theory that people don’t work for organisations – people work for people. The transformation work that Wiktorko led has also had a significant impact on staff engagement and satisfaction. Staff surveys conducted every six months have shown an increase in engagement rates (improving from 53% in 2022 to 84% in 2023), indicating improved morale and motivation among enforcement colleagues.

The creation of apprenticeship positions further supports the development of new talent within the parking industry and is expected to address future recruitment challenges. A recent council-wide staff survey has further shown how Wiktorko has led the team and it forms part of his testimonial.

Wiktorko designed a new structure that created an environment for team leaders and managers to spend time with officers directly in coaching, supporting, training and motivating staff. This has had a real positive impact on the staff. During 2023/24 his team has seen only one member of staff leaving for better opportunities externally – a few years earlier at least 30% of staff would leave to work elsewhere.

School Streets enforcement programme

Wiktorko has led the implementation of enforcement in School Streets that set a new standard for the UK. This work was further recognised in 2023 with an award at the British Parking Awards for School Streets. His innovative approaches to managing vehicle access around schools during peak times, enhancing safety and reducing traffic-related pollution has resulted in creating safer and more sustainable environments for school children.

Payment arrangements in debt recovery

Wiktorko has worked on redefining the debt recovery processes and contracts for outstanding debt in relation to parking penalty charge notices (PCNs). With the new Taking Control of Goods Act coming into force, he had the foresight to understand that the future of the debt recovery work would focus on the support to vulnerable debtors and offering payment arrangements.

A very similar process was later implemented in the form of “breathing space”. The initial scepticism about accepting part-payments and instalments resulted in over 30% increase in the income recovered and now represents standard practice on Hackney Council debt recovery contracts.

Sharing experiences

Kevin Keady, assistant director at Hackney Council, says: “Michael has always known that parking is just a tool to deliver greater change in the local communities and make the lives of residents safer, healthier and better. Michael is a strong advocate for the parking sector and wants to share his ideas on how to deliver the best performance in the sector with all stakeholders, both public and private.”

Winner’s words

Michael Wiktorko: “Wow! I never expected it, this award means a lot. I was quite unprepared, so I don’t really know what to say, but it means a lot. And I hope I can continue to develop parking and make the difference for better communities and the country.”

The British Parking Awards

Created and presented by Parking Review magazine, the British Parking Awards are an independent competition. The awards recognise the leading examples of car park management, enforcement, design and team work.

The British Parking Awards 2024 ceremony took place at the Royal Lancaster London on 13 September.

Read and download the 2025 WINNERS EDITION of PARKING REVIEW by clicking HERE

To find out more about the competition and next year’s event check out the official website.
www.britishparkingawards.uk