FEATURE THE BIG INTERVIEW
We have to see these opportunities and
then work together to make the most of them
talk between various parties had been tough. Cambridge city and Cambridgeshire have been in the headlines recently because of the amount of money raised through parking costs and parking penalty charges in the area. To Cleary, the situation is clear: ‘People forget that running car parks is an expensive business. People will pay to come into the city if the car parks support their needs; it is a simple case of supply and demand. But we want to make sure that their experience of using parking services is a positive one, and that costs money. People talk about our great income, but nearly all of it goes directly back into the council to support the many other services it provides. Cleary wants the retailers and the public to realise the enormous potential of car parks as more than just a place to leave a car. He is working hard to get retailers to advertise via the car parks, but he wants to see far greater innovation in practice, particularly when it comes to attracting people into the city in the evenings. ‘Cambridge has a fantastic and vibrant evening economy to offer. There are restaurants, theatres and the Corn Exchange concert/entertainment venue. We need to encourage people to come into the city to sample these, and we are investigating new ways of supporting the local economy, such as deals between restaurants and the car park, so that when you eat a meal at a particular restaurant you could get a discount set off against your car parking charge. ‘We have to see these opportunities and then work together to make the most of them,’ he added.
A DAY IN THE LIFE... It’s not all work for Sean Cleary. He still
plays football twice a week and has two children, fi ve-year-old Elise and 11-year old Stephen, who is a competent striker and already playing football with Cambridge United.
7am In offi ce, sifting through emails. 9.30am Attend meetings. These could be in relation to structural, marketing, fi nancial, operational or with members of the police or community groups. 1pm Working lunch. 2pm Visits to facilities, or off-site meetings to discuss procurement options. 3.30pm Emails and report preparation. 5.50pm Home, to check emails again.
34 AUGUST 2012
Taking chances The city’s facilities will benefi t from Cleary’s own ability to see an opportunity. A visit to Olympia sparked an idea for a multi-purpose turf on the roof of a car park so BMX and skateboarding could be offered when the car park was not busy. LED lighting to replace conventional lighting has already been put into one MSCP, and he is now working in partnership with the council’s carbon management team to look at other similar effi ciency projects across all the city’s car parks.
When I met up with Cleary, he had just returned from playing in a football match at Notts County’s Meadow Lane football stadium, and with a little prompting I also discovered that he had played a high level of football in Germany.
This competitive spirit has found a new home in the parking industry, as has his belief in the power of teamwork.
‘I came into this business from a military background and, more recently, from housing and environmental services,’ he said. ‘My knowledge of parking was, shall we
say, limited. So I needed to rely on the people around me at fi rst for advice and guidance. Credit where it’s due: they are a fantastic team. ‘Paul [Necus], my immediate line manager, has given me plenty of support and lots of autonomy to develop in my role, but it is my management team and the people who work in my parking, commercial and Shopmobility teams who really make the service operate at the level it does. Cleary is a man in a hurry. He admits that he doesn’t think anyone should stay in one role for too long, although he was warned by one parking sage: ‘Once in parking, always in parking. You just don’t leave.’ But he has ambitions for the city’s parking operations and he wants to see them become a reality.
When I asked him what the downside was to a role that he otherwise clearly relishes, there was a common theme: ‘Red tape and a culture that is not comfortable or experienced with the cut and thrust of the commercial world.’
And, while he might yet look for new roles within the sector, he did drop a hint that he wasn’t quite done with parking yet: ‘I have already told Paul that I have not dismissed the idea of being the president of the BPA one day.’
www.britishparking.co.uk
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