Double success at British Parking Awards

Canterbury City Council has picked up two prizes at this year’s prestigious British Parking Awards.

The council won in both the categories it was nominated for – Parking as a Service, and Parking Technology – at the awards held in London last Friday (8 March).

The Parking as a Service award was for the council’s new online, paperless permits system, which, in partnership with software company Imperial, saw the development of an ‘end-to-end’ digital process to replace hard copy permits that were stuck on windscreens.

Residents can now fully apply for and manage on and off-street permits and visitor permits online, removing the need to go to the council’s offices, which they had to do with paper permits.

And in the Parking Technology category, it was the council’s new ANPR system that scooped the award, in partnership with software firm Sagoss.

ANPR is currently being rolled out to 16 car parks across the district, including the three park and ride sites. It follows a successful trial in four car parks over the last two years that received positive feedback from customers and saw more than 10,000 online parking accounts created.

This success led to the development of the new system with Sagoss, and once the rollout is complete, Canterbury district will have more council-run car parks with ANPR than any local authority in the country.

Chairman of the council’s Regeneration and Property Committee, Cllr Ben Fitter-Harding, said: “Both of these projects have seen us using the latest technology to totally transform the way residents, businesses and visitors use our parking facilities. A lot of careful planning, invention and hard work has gone into them and it’s great to have this formally recognised with two awards.

“I’d like to thank our respective partners, Imperial and Sagoss, for their commitment and support, along with Peter Davies and the whole team at Canterbury City Council for making it happen.

“Even though Canterbury is now one of the leading and most innovative councils for providing parking services, it is our intention to both continue improving them and also to digitally transform other council services, building on everything we have learned and striving to pick up more awards along the way.”

Published: 12 March 2019