S P O T L GI H T ENFORCEMENT SPECIAL
View from the A
GOOD PARKING ENFORCEMENT COMES AT A PRICE – THE MESSAGE FROM THE SUMMIT
t the Enforcement Summit, held at Chelsea Football Club, delegates heard from speakers representing a range of parking backgrounds. However, with budgets in both the
private and public sector under increasing pressure, the industry has to provide both innovative and high quality service to the customer. Te summit, entitled Te Future of Parking, Traffic
and Civil Enforcement, was organised by Parking Review and sponsored by Davis Enforcement.
Detailed accounts
Worthing Borough Council parking services manager Mandy Ainsworth has put data sharing at the heart of her approach towards providing an efficient parking and enforcement service. Monthly and quarterly reports allow the parking team to identify problems and successes in their operations. The transparency and immediacy of the reports means that Ainsworth and her team can keep council members and stakeholders informed on costs, deficits, complaints and praise, as well as making the filing of annual reports a straightforward business.
Information about successful CEO beats, statistics from pay-and-display machines, any incorrect signs and lines and the presence of unlicensed vehicles can all be flagged up under the reporting system. Decisions can then be made about staffing levels and deployment. Through regular meetings with the relevant managers, Ainsworth is also able to assess the council’s bailiff needs. ‘We tend to split our bailiff contract on a 50/50 basis but, if our reports show that one firm is having a better success rate, then we will revise the amount of work we give each company to reflect that.’
36 AUGUST 2010
No such thing as a free car park
Parking should always be paid for, and by not charging for every centimetre of kerbside, we are allowing the private motorist to hijack public space. This was the controversial opening theme to the Enforcement Summit from economist John Siraut. The director of economics at
consultants Colin Buchanan identified areas that lend themselves to the principles of economics. With nine million penalty
charge notices (PCN) issued each year, and 18 per cent of the adult population receiving at least one PCN annually, parking enforcement is worth more than £500m to the economy. In terms of safety, the return
on good parking enforcement is clear, with many traffic accidents attributable to poor parking. Problems caused by badly parked cars equate to a £600m cost to the economy, said Siraut. And he identified conflict over
parking spaces near parades of shops and in town centres as another area where the benefits of an efficient parking enforcement strategy would clearly outweigh the costs. With 1.6 million commuters vying with shoppers for town- centre parking spaces, there was a reported loss to retailers of £1bn. The majority of commuters look
for the free or cheap on-street parking, while the remainder take up public car parking spaces for an entire working day. The shoppers, unable to find a space, go elsewhere to shop.
Focused… delegates listen to the ideas from a range of speakers
Siraut argued: ‘There is a clear rationale for ensuring that parking spaces are available,’ and he said that should be achieved by efficient enforcement and well-judged pricing. The latter was a particularly salient point as, currently, more than 100 local authorities lose money through their parking departments. ‘Arguments that parking
should be provided for free just do not stack up. Parking, whether it costs or not, still needs policing.’ ‘And there has been a hijacking of public spaces by individuals. People are prepared to pay a lot for a parking space but we just give away car parking space in residential streets and around the public squares and areas that used to be car-free. Many public areas are now just road-side parking lots. He concluded: ‘Parking costs someone, somewhere, something – so it makes sense that the person using it should be the one to pay.’
www.britishparking.co.uk
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