Brighton & Hove City Council named as winner of the Best Report at the PARC (Parking Annual Report Awards by Councils) event, which was held at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, July 16. It is the third time the council has won the award.
THE annual PARC awards which are organised by PATROL (Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London) recognises the local authorities who have published the best reports on their parking services, as part of their civil enforcement reporting.
The Best Report is judged on the overall presentation, how helpful it is to the local community, the policies, scheme design and the quality of the information provided.
PATROL congratulated the council on its award, saying it was reflective of a clearly presented and informative report across the board, with the inclusion of innovative projects, transparent performance data and detailed information on finances, including – crucially – how the surplus is used.
The award was received on behalf of the council by the Chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, Councillor Anne Pissaridou, and City Transport officers Charles Field, Head of Parking Services and Paul Nicholls, Parking Strategy and Contracts Manager.
The council’s annual parking report offers an overview of parking in the city, highlighting new initiatives and developing trends, with the continuing aim of improving our services for both residents and visitors.
The tenth annual report was published in October 2018 and highlighted a number of major developments that have taken place in the city, including the completion of a large-scale project to replace and upgrade all of the city’s pay-and-display ticket machines, with over 800 new solar-powered machines. It also covered initiatives to tackle problem parking at our schools and along our main bus routes.
In 2017/18 the number of parking Penalty Charge Notices issued fell by 8%, while parking surplus income rose 11% to £15,209,926. Most of the surplus is spent on providing free bus passes for older and disabled people. The rest of the money has been re-invested back into other transport projects including highway maintenance such as resurfacing roads and repairing potholes and pavements.
Councillor Anne Pissaridou said: “We are delighted to receive this internationally recognised award for our work and I would like to thank everyone who has worked so hard to produce the report.
“The parking annual report is a critical aspect of our civil parking and traffic enforcement work and provides an opportunity for us to demonstrate the value of the city’s publicly operated parking to our residents, in an open and transparent way.
“We look forward to building on this success and engaging with our residents on the exciting developments planned for this year, including the installation of 200 Electric Vehicle on-street charging points.”