Parking World

Museum Peace

   

No this is not from an art museum, this is graffiti in the staircase at NCP's car park on Osborne Street in Colchester, UK. But, no, it is not vandalism. It is a partnership between NCP, the UK’s largest car parking provider, and the Colchester Museum.

“This has proven to be a fantastic initiative for all those involved," says Geri Cowell, Assistant Community Outreach Officer at Colchester Museum. "As well as brightening up the car park, we hope to have given the young offenders something creative and constructive to focus on and be proud of.”

NCP Osborne Street is also running a promotion to celebrate the launch of the project, by entering all customers parking at the site in a drawing to win a £250 gift voucher for local department store Williams & Griffin.

A great reminder that a car park can make a positive impact on the community, with a little innovation and effort.

 

Pete Goldin

 

It’s Only the Law

Britain has quite a complex set of rules for managing street space and it seems to me that at quite an early stage municipal officers should really learn what these rules allow them to do and what’s not legal. For example, kerbs can be used for paid parking and spaces can be set aside for vehicles to load. What you can’t do is charge for loading bays. It’s in the law and it’s quite clear. Also quite clear is that parking charges are for managing parking, not for raising revenues.

A little surprising therefore to see in the news that London Mayor Boris Johnson, in response to the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, suggested charges for loading bays and for free short stay parking could be used to raise revenue. Doesn’t this guy take advice before engaging mouth? Probably not, since he is a politician, but on the other hand the guy who should have been whispering in his ear transport commissioner Peter Hendy told the BBC: "If we need to change the regulations in order to be able to do so [charge for use of the bays] and it produces valuable income then that's what we will do."

So the second most powerful politician in the UK and his most highly paid transport advisor say “it’s not lawful but we are going to do it anyway”. I wonder why the public hold us in so much contempt?

 

Peter Guest

The British Media is Bad News for Parking …

The story is this. A woman spent an hour talking a potential suicide off a bridge. She returned to her car and found a ticket on it. She told the parking company what had happened and included a letter from the local police commending her on her bravery. They first refused to rescind the $100 fine, but later acquiesced and forgave the ticket.

1. Oh please – don't you idiots know that the press is lying for you to do something bone dead like this. Doesn't anyone even look at requests to void parking tickets before you deny them.
2. This is a non story – after someone with an IQ above room temperature at the parking company got the message, the ticket was rescinded.
3. Just think – the parking company could have been a hero. The headline read "Parking Ticket for Suicide Hero Mum" It could have read – "Parking Company Gives Hero a Year's Free Parking."

Those of us in the parking business have no clue.

 

JVH

Now is the Winter of My Discontent...

Sources tell me that Scotland’s second city Glasgow could spend the run up to Christmas with the municipal parking operation closed down. Three years ago Glasgow set up City Parking with service provider SERCO as one of a number of arms length joint ventures. City Parking runs 16 car parks that together provide about 4,500 spaces in and around the city centre. The business also provides the City’s street parking enforcement staff and the tow away service.

The problem is that by forming the company the staff in car parks were taken outside local government pay and conditions - a fact the City seems to have forgotten. Local government agreed a national pay settlement of 0.65% this year and the City simply imposed this on the City Parking Staff. “No way” said the unions, “staff are no longer covered by national agreements, we work for a profitable private company and we want direct negotiations". Glasgow is already in a long running dispute with the outsourced museum staff and a further 5,000 staff in the JVs have also been recommended to reject the offer.

What will happen if the staff do strike is not clear. Dark warnings that the car parks will be closed down seems a little over-stated but users might be in for a free ride. Of greater concern would be what could happen if enforcement disappears from the streets. Parking enforcement may not be the most popular job but the anarchy of unregulated streets could make them the most popular people north of the border. With the advent of civil enforcement the police’s powers are limited and dire threats of taking the jobs away and getting in a private contractor seems unlikely in the light of the 10 years contract held by City Parking.

Watch this space. This could be fun.

 

Peter Guest