NEWS
COUNTDOWN begins…
The
The theme of this year’s Annual Conference is ‘People, Places and Parking’, as we look to debate the impact of parking provision, management and parking charges on town centres
A
s the summer that never really was draws to a close and the excitement of the Olympics dies
down, it is time to start looking to the autumn. Here at the BPA, early autumn means the Annual Conference, an event that has been firmly planted in one guise or another in the BPA calendar for many years. Starting out as the spring – and subsequently autumn – seminar, this event is of major importance in the parking events calendar. In the past, it was one of only a few
opportunities throughout the year for those in the parking sector to come together to share ideas, engage in informal networking and discuss important developments. The gradual expansion of the BPA’s regional and special interest groups means that there are now countless opportunities for engagement between our members throughout the year, but that is not to belittle the continued importance of the conference.
Events on a larger scale not only provide critical mass in terms of how many and which people gather together in one place at the same time, but they also draw in speakers who might not normally feature at the smaller regular events. The conference
14 SEPTEMBER 2012
BPA NEWS
sits somewhere between Parkex, the largest dedicated parking event in Europe, and the group meetings in that it retains a certain sense of cosiness where people reconnect and lively discussions can be witnessed, while retaining a high profile event feel to the day. The conference also gives the commercial world of parking a stage to showcase technological and service developments in the supporting exhibition, which is large enough to offer variety, but small enough to give delegates the opportunity to visit the stands.
The best plans Each year, planning of the conference programme starts as early as February, with initial thoughts that take into account anticipated developments in parking over the coming year. During this year’s discussions, it was impossible to ignore the heightened profile of high streets and town centres, and this was always a strong contender to form the basis of the programme. The Portas Review received media attention, but the issues underlying it are not new and are more complex in many aspects than the final report suggested. This is particularly the case with parking, and the calls for making it free as a panacea to all of the high street’s problems were, at best, oversimplifying the issue, and at worst showed a significant lack of understanding. The BPA started working more closely with the Association of Town Centre Management shortly after the Portas Review was commissioned by government. The first piece of joint work, which is still ongoing, was to undertake some research to try and establish
Events on a larger scale provide critical mass in
terms of how many people gather in one place, and they also draw in speakers
what impact parking provision, management and charges actually have on town centres. The majority of people sensibly realise that no one factor causes a high street to go into decline, but it was important to find out whether parking is a significant contributor, or if it is just a perception. Even if it is more of a perceptive issue, this still can’t be ignored if it means people will avoid a town because they think parking is difficult/ expensive/scarce.
www.britishparking.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64