VINCI Park Hospital Mobility Scheme Wins British Parking Awards

VINCI Park hospital mobility scheme wins British Parking Awards

7 March 2008 For more details, visit www.britishparkingawards.co.uk

Parking management company VINCI Park has won the Equita Overall Award at the 2008 British Parking Awards for its accessibility scheme at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee. The scheme applies “Shopmobility” principles to increase mobility and access across this NHS Tayside site.

VINCI Park’s award was announced by actress and journalist Meera Syal, who entertained a packed house of nearly five hundred parking professionals over lunch at the Dorchester Hotel.

The first hospital mobility scheme of its kind in the UK is benefiting disabled outpatients and visitors to the hospital. A purpose-designed Mobility Office has been built in the hospital’s blue badge holders-only car park. The Ninewells service provides 12 electric scooters, plus wheelchairs, for disabled patients and visitors so they can park their cars and then pick up a scooter or wheelchair in the car park and make their way into the hospital for their appointments or visits.

“The idea of applying the principles of well known Shopmobility schemes to hospital car parks is such a simple idea the judges were surprised that no one seems to have done it before,” says Mark Moran, Parking Review Managing Editor and chair of the judging panel. “At Ninewells, VINCI has created a high specification, self-financing scheme that is already being cited as best practice.”

“ Accessibility was a recurring theme at this year’s awards, with many innovative schemes vying for a prize, says Paul Sharpe, Marketing Director of Equita, which sponsors the British Parking Awards. “The VINCI Park scheme at Ninewells represents the best of all these highly commendable ideas.”

The British Parking Awards, organised by Parking Review magazine and Landor Conferences, sponsored by Equita and supported by the British Parking Association, was created to reward well designed parking facilities and operators. This year’s competition attracted more than ninety entries from local councils, consultants, car park operators, architects and developers, while the ceremony itself was a sell-out event for the third year running.

The category winners:

1. Best Refurbishment Award (sponsored by Park Mark)

Edmonton Green Shopping Centre Multi-storey Makers Parking This north London car park looked distinctly tired. Then St Modwens bought the site and hired Makers to transform it into a facility fit for 21st century shoppers. 2. Off-Street Parking Team of the Year Award (sponsored by RingGo)

University of Wales Institute, Cardiff VINCI Park UK VINCI Park has managed parking for 9,000 students and over 1,000 university staff at five campuses since September 2006. VINCI has upgraded the car parks, introduced bi-lingual information and deploys visible staff. All five campuses have now achieved Park Mark status.

3. Enforcement Team of the Year Award (sponsored by The Enforcers)

Parking Enforcement Team London Borough of Haringey Haringey Parking Services contributes to the “Better Haringey” improvement agenda by tackling abandoned cars, illegal parking that hinders refuse collection, introducing emissions-based residential parking permits and enforcing school parking restrictions. It has excellent partnerships with other council departments, the police and fire services, and its contractor Ontime.

4. Back Office Team of the Year Award (sponsored by Civica)

The stars that make ParkWise shine ParkWise, Lancashire The ParkWise back office provides the focal point for an enforcement regime that spans 12 Lancashire councils. As the focus of often negative media coverage, the back office team now has its own dedicated communications officer. The department has Investors in People status and is working toward a Charter Mark.

5. Training Award (sponsored by Alpha Parking)

Training programme delivers improved compliance at Leicester City Council VINCI Park UK In 2006 the council successfully applied to introduce decriminalised parking enforcement, which brought a need to train an established team in new techniques. The training was based on the VINCI Improvement Path (VIP) programme. The contractor also piloted a new approach to parking attendant recruitment.

6. Joined-Up Thinking: The Innovation Award This year the judges have selected joint winners, one reflecting joined-up thinking, the other innovation.

Parking enforcement guidance policies Kent Parking Managers Group The group is made up of 13 councils across Kent and Medway who have implemented consistent policies for the enforcement and cancellation of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs). The policies cover observation times for enforcement staff, the statutory grounds upon which representations may be made, mitigating circumstances and the acceptance or rejection of representations.

City Parking (Glasgow) LLP Glasgow City Council Land & Environmental Services The Council operated four multi-storey and two surface car parks. The car parks were in need of major investment, however the council faced severe financial constraints. They decided to create a Limited Liability Partnership to operate and develop the car parks. The financial tender, awarded to Lloyds/TSB, provided £40m to secure a 30- year lease and £4.6m to invest in their infrastructure.

7. Judges’ Special Award This goes to VINCI Park and Ninewells Hospital

The idea of applying the principles of well known Shopmobility schemes to hospital car parks is such a simple one, the judges were surprised that no one seems to have done it before. At Ninewells, VINCI has created a high specification, a self-financing scheme that is already being cited as best practice.

8. Exceptional Customer Service Award (sponsored by NCP)

Exceptional service at the Barbican The Barbican & Legion Parking Services Since winning the Barbican Car Park management contract in June 2007, Legion Parking has built up a close working relationship with the art centre’s facilities team. The new parking customer centre offers a relaxing atmosphere, a bay reservation system and escort-to-car services. Usage of the car parks has risen substantially.

9. The Marketing Award (sponsored by NCP)

RingGo: Launching a new brand Cobalt Telephone Technologies The RingGo launch comprises two distinct campaigns. The first sought to inform the motoring public and tempt them into trying the new technology. The second aimed to convince local authority managers of the merits of phone parking as a means of complementing traditional pay & display technologies.

10. Best New Car Park Award

Ocean Car Park, Southampton Tiger Stripe Architects & Marina Developments The Ocean Car Park provides 776 spaces for the new Ocean Village Marina. The designers wanted to create a car park where the architecture aided the subconscious understanding of the first time user. It has iconic spiral ramps and there are daylight sensors to control lighting and rainwater is harvested to irrigate landscaping.

11. Parking Person of the Year Award

Jason McFadden Divisional manager for Northern Ireland, NCP Services Jason is credited with overcoming early setbacks in the delivery of this massive contract. He has made a huge impression due to his dedication and commitment to the operation of the Northern Ireland contract and demonstrates leadership qualities essential to achieving objectives.”

12. Judges’ Special Award The winner of the second Judges’ Special Award is Parasol

During her acceptance speech as 2007 Parking Person of the Year, Anjna Patel announced her plan to go on a 106 mile trek on behalf of British troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. She did so in the company of a group of parking professionals. The group succeeded not just in raising £20,000 for good cause, but in pushing themselves to the limit.

For more details, visit www.britishparkingawards.co.uk

For further information please contact:

Media Enquiries Catherine Dekker [email protected]

Notes for editors:

Launched in 1989, Parking Review is written for public and private sector parking managers, enforcement contractors, car park designers and builders, highway planners, police forces, transport consultants, parking system suppliers and specialists. The monthly journal now includes a quarterly magazine supplement ‘The Enforcers’. Visit www.parkingreview.co.uk

Landor Conferences has been developing and running seminars, conferences, exhibitions and awards ceremonies since 1995 and is probably best known for its annual London Rail Conference, now in its tenth year. The company currently organises about 30 one and two day events a year, attracting between 50 and500 delegates. Forthcoming events include cinema conference Independents Day (11 March) and Vehicle Design Forum (26 March). Visit www.landorconferences.co.uk

Equita Limited is a leading provider of collection and enforcement services to local authorities operating decriminalised parking. Based in Northampton, Equita offers a nationwide service through its infrastructure of local offices in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Visit www.equita.co.uk