FEATURE THE BIG INTERVIEW
a Parking
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The honest approach… Clark believes in an open approach with the public and media.
hen Hillingdon Borough Council was named overall winner at the British Parking Awards earlier this year, no-one was more proud of the achievement than
parking services manager Roy Clark. He was only half-joking when he said he ‘loved parking’ and his pride in his team was obvious. ‘We try to aim for a good positive image and, if
there is a negative story about parking in the borough, then we deal with it and try to prevent it ever happening again.’ A team of 39 staff make up the parking operation in
the busy west London borough, which encompasses Ruislip, Hayes, Northwood and Isleworth. Tat team is divided into three groups –
operations, support team and administration, but Clark explains that, within his team, he encourages the employees to try different areas of operation:
c heart of the t the
HILLINGDON BOROUGH COUNCIL SWEPT UP THE MAIN PRIZES AT THE BRITISH PARKING AWARDS. SARAH JUGGINS SPOKE TO TEAM LEADER ROY CLARK ABOUT THE SECRET OF THEIR SUCCESS
ommunity
‘I believe in promoting job satisfaction, and one of the ways of achieving that is to offer variety. I will encourage a front-line worker to experience ticketing, deal with abandoned vehicles – in fact, try a number of different roles. It is important that staff do not feel stuck in a rut.’ Clark explained that the staff members are
trained in-house – their training courses were developed by training providers Alpha Parking. Te investment in their own training programme has been justified – not only did they win the Back Office Team of the Year and were shortlisted in the Parking Training Award, they also have employees from other boroughs joining their courses. ‘We recognised that there was a bit of a gap and
so we tried to push our training. Now some of our staff are qualified to lead industry-recognised qualifications such as the ILM Notice Processing training course.’
Gaining public trust
Clark is very aware of the need to enhance the public’s perception of parking. ‘Some of the private firms do give the whole of
parking a very bad reputation. Te public do not always understand the difference between private operators and local authority providers. ‘While there are some very responsible private
companies, there are others that are bordering on terrible. I am forever hearing horror stories.’ Te bad press generated by the ‘cowboy operators’
has been a factor that Clark has had to fight against. ‘Too often, when I tell someone what I do, I get
a negative reaction. Ten I tell them how my job keeps their dropped kerb outside their house clear of
24 MAY 2010
www.britishparking.co.uk
OUR MAIN JOB IS TO KEEP TRAFFIC MOVING, AND I WOULD LIKE TO THINK WE DO THAT THROUGH HARD WORK AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL
Winning team… Roy Clark heads the successful parking department at Hillingdon Borough Council.
© GIBSON BLANC DESIGN
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