NEWS COMPANIES AND PEOPLE
STREET-WISE IN BIRMINGHAM
Mark Watts, bringing IT know-how to the parking sector
ALL CAR PARKS UNDER ONE ROOF
While congestion and car parking is a perennial problem in London, there are a number of car parks that have spaces that the public are unaware of.
Visitorparking.co.uk aims to address this problem by linking car park owners with customers through an umbrella website.
The website is the brainchild of Mark Watts, a telecommunications specialist who spent 10 years working for BT before spotting a gap in the market for this service. The site will be a ‘one-stop shop’ for parking in London, linking participating car parks with attractions, hotels, restaurants and businesses; enabling visitors to select their place to park as well as book and pay in advance.
The concept was born from speaking with a number of London
hotels and attractions, who expressed their concerns on the difficulty visitors have when travelling to London. From further talks with car park operators it became apparent that, in many cases, there is surplus capacity in London car parks and it was feasible to provide a small allocation of spaces to onward sell in a controlled manner. Watts said: ‘There are many sites that enable a visitor to look up a car park in London online and some websites offer a pre-booking service for a limited choice of locations, normally through just a single operator.
‘I will be offering a comprehensive selection, hopefully covering all the major car park operators on a non- comparison website, instead leading with convenience and choice for the visitor to London.’
CHIC SHAMBLES
Parking company Q-Park has recently refurbished the Shambles car park in York. With 272 spaces, this centrally-located car park offers visitors to this heritage city easy access to the shops, restaurants and bars as well as to city centre hotels and historic museums.
40 JUNE 2012
The transformed car park is attractive, safe and secure with brighter energy-efficient lighting, clearer directional signage, new pay machines and barriers, glass-fronted lifts for passenger safety and an improved road layout. To ensure high levels of
security, all pedestrians will be required to use their ticket to enter the car park, in order to keep out criminals.
The car park boasts 24-hour CCTV and regular patrols. Car park attendants will also help shoppers carry things to their cars.
Southside business improvement district has introduced a new team of street wardens as part of its programme of improvement works for the Birmingham city centre district. The new team, provided by APCOA Services Group, hit the beat for the first time in the area in April, which is a designated business improvement district. The group will become a familiar sight on the streets, helping to provide a safe environment across the area day and night, reassuring everyone from theatre goers to night-clubbers, and from residents to office workers.
APCOA also provides security patrolling services, car park management services and security services.
In their distinctive blue and purple uniforms, Southside’s street wardens will be easily recognisable and are the ‘eyes and ears’ on the street. They patrol the business district, providing guidance and advice to the public, while supporting the work of West Midlands Police and other security initiatives already in place in the district. The street wardens will work as part of the wider community, interacting with
Southside’s businesses, staff and residents, as well as providing a warm welcome to visitors. They will also assist in the support of groups at risk from crime and anti-social behaviour, improving these groups’ confidence and quality of life.
WELCOMING COMMITTEE
‘ilove meet and greet’ is a new meet and greet airport parking company, which has been launched by Sarah Anglim. Based on the US valet parking concept, Anglim was part of the team that introduced meet and greet parking to Gatwick in 1984.
Anglim
established her reputation by building up the original
company, PAS Direct, which sold out to Meteor Parking, now a part of Vinci Park. She said: ‘Meet and greet parking is in my blood; I helped to bring the concept to the UK and subsequently led this country’s largest operator. My passion for parking of this type means I
always want to deliver the best possible service.’
www.britishparking.co.uk
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