Thank you, everyone...

The British Parking Awards paid tribute to the sector’s work during the pandemic

Throughout the coronavirus lockdowns the parking sector played a key role in ensuring essential health and public services kept working. Many of the entries to this year’s competition set out how parking teams worked to ensure NHS and critical care workers had access to free parking, that essential supplies made it to retailers, and that emergency pavement widening and cycling schemes were installed and regulated.

Many parking teams stepped in to help with the delivery of food parcels to vulnerable people, marshalled drive-through NHS Test & Trace centres, created pre-booking systems for waste and recycling centres and, soberingly, volunteered to help in mortuaries. Meanwhile, construction project teams responsible for refurbishing car parks and maintaining parking and signage infrastructure kept working, ensuring essential services were able to function.

Parking Review, the competition jury and the event’s main sponsor MiPermit all felt that the endeavours of the sector as a whole should be recognised. This tribute took the form of a short film and the creation of special glass rosette to honour teams that had gone above and beyond during lockdown.

Paul Moorby OBE, managing director of Chipside, the parent company of the awards’ main sponsor MiPermit, said: “The British Parking Awards celebrate the very best of our industry, the very best of us, the very best of you. In the last few months, we have all faced our deepest fears. We have all worked hard to keep services moving. So it is right that we recognise some of our outstanding achievements.”

Tracey Munford, director of local government services at APCOA Parking (UK), was among the awards attendees who appreciated the tribute. After the event she said: “The British Parking Awards 2021 was another highly successful event and your decision to set up a separate category for the Positive Responses to the Pandemic and then award all entrants was excellent. All our front line colleagues, regardless of employer, went above and beyond during a difficult period for us all.”

This was a sentiment shared by JustPark chief executive Anthony Eskinazi, who wrote: “I thought the pandemic response video and awards to all companies who participated was really powerful.”

On behalf of the Parking Review, I would like to thank the parking sector for its amazing response to the pandemic.

Mark Moran is editor of Parking Review and co-founder of the British Parking Awards

Positive Responses to the Pandemic

Congratulations go out to all those organisations that were recognised with a special commendation for the exceptional work their parking teams carried out to support the NHS, local authority clients and communities to manage, mitigate and fight the coronavirus pandemic.

• APCOA Parking and AGS Airports – Aberdeen International Airport
• APCOA Parking and London Borough of Redbridge
• APCOA Parking and St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council
• B4 Parking
• Barnet Council and NSL
• Bracknell Forest Council and NSL
• Brent Council
• Brighton & Hove City Council
• British Parking Association (BPA), Parkopedia, YourParkingSpace and JustPark – The NHS Free Parking Platform for Critical Workers
• Cemplas
• Cornwall Council
• Derby City Council
• International Parking Community (IPC) – NHS Staff and Care Worker Free Car Park Finder
• JustPark
• London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley Shared Parking Service
• London Borough of Havering
• London Borough of Lambeth and APCOA Parking
• Manchester City Council and NSL
• Marston Holdings, St Mungo’s and Radical Recruit
• Newcastle City Council
• North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) Business Unit
• Nottingham City Council Parking Services
• NSL Northampton and West Northamptonshire Council
• Oxfordshire County Council and Conduent Transportation
• RingGo
• Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and PayByPhone – Parking for critical workers]
• Southwark Council and APCOA Parking
• StructureCare
• Taranto Systems
• ZZPS