Parking Technology Award: Peterborough City Council and Imperial

British Parking Awards 2024

Managing vehicular access to sensitive zones such as school streets and pedestrian-only areas presents ongoing challenges in many urban areas. These areas are intended to promote safety, reduce congestion, and enhance the environment for pedestrians and cyclists. However, unauthorised vehicles disrupt these goals and create issues for both residents and businesses.

In Peterborough residents and businesses alike expressed concerns over the impact of unauthorised parking and traffic violations on community safety, air quality and the overall quality of life.

Complaints about congestion, obstruction of pedestrian routes, and the inconsistency of enforcement had become frequent. Traditional enforcement methods, relying heavily on manual patrols and spot-checking had proven inadequate and resource intensive.

Peterborough Borough Council staff faced challenges in efficiently identifying and penalising vehicles without valid permits or exemptions. Manual management of whitelists and exemption lists were prone to errors, leading to the issuing of unjustified penalty charge notices (PCNs) and unnecessary appeals from frustrated residents and businesses.

These concerns prompted the borough to explore more effective and automated solutions. This led to the council working with Imperial to implement the PermitSmarti solution.

PermitSmarti was designed to address these issues by offering motorists with a streamlined exemption application and management system and automating enforcement by integrating with real-time ANPR cameras. PermitSmarti also integrates seamlessly with Peterborough City Council’s existing Imperial 3sixty notice processing software for the management of penalty charge notices (PCNs).

One of the most difficult and labour-intensive tasks associated with traditional ANPR enforcement is the management of whitelists. Manually managing whitelists is labour intensive due to the constant need for updates, accuracy checks, and coordination among multiple personnel, all of which require considerable time and effort. The process is prone to errors and inefficiencies, making it challenging to maintain a list’s integrity.

The Imperial solution automates this, enabling motorists to apply for and manage their exemptions electronically. When PermitSmarti grants an exemption, this is automatically communicated to the cameras without the need for council intervention. This means that the cameras can identify where a vehicle is not committing a contravention, reducing the workload for council staff by eliminating the need for manual intervention and video reviews. Peterborough has thus been able to enforce its school streets and pedestrianisation zone without having to recruit any additional staff.

In parallel to adopting PermitSmarti, Imperial has supported Peterborough’s enforcement of moving traffic regulations. On 22 July 2023, Peterborough City Council, alongside 39 other authorities across England and Wales, was granted enforcement powers under Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 by Parliament. Before this date, the police carried out this role alongside its serious competing priorities.

Peterborough has now adopted Imperial’s 3sixty Notice Processing Moving Traffic Enforcement module for the management of MTE penalty charge notices. The council has been enforcing MTE contraventions and managing exemptions using PermitSmarti since February 2024.

Winner's Words

Adam Payton (Peterborough Borough Council): “Peterborough Borough Council has been working with Imperial. We offer a seamless approach to exemptions using its permits products so that our customers can self-serve. This helps us deliver parking and moving traffic enforcement without needing additional resources.”

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