Brighton & Hove City Council wins Best Report Award at PATROL PARC Awards
Brighton & Hove City Council was last night (Monday 11 July) named as the winner of the Best Report at the PATROL PARC Awards (Parking Annual Report Awards by Councils), held at the Houses of Parliament and hosted by David Rutley MP. Cllr Gill Mitchell and Paul Nicholls, Joint acting Head Parking and Network Operations, received the award on behalf of the council from Rt Hon Mike Penning MP, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice and Home Office.
PATROL’s annual awards ceremony 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.
Councillor Jamie Macrae, Chair of the PATROL Joint Committee, said of Brighton & Hove Council: “Brighton & Hove Council have consistently produced an outstanding report for the past seven years. This year they have maintained their high standard – the report is attractive and easy to read with plenty of appropriate illustrations and it provides all the information that a resident or visitor needs to know about parking and related issues.”
Cllr Gill Mitchell, Brighton & Hove City Council Chair of Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, said: “We are very proud to have our work recognised in this way and we are grateful to everyone who contributed to this year’s report. Our residents are keen to know about parking in Brighton & Hove and this report is an important way of sharing the latest news about publicly operated parking year on year. The 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.”
As part of PATROL’s campaign to change the national conversation about parking, the awards have been designed to reward, share and promote best practice in local authority annual reporting nationwide.
Civil parking enforcement involves managing limited parking resources on behalf of the community. Having an informative and well-designed parking report can simplify the process for local authorities to demonstrate their benefit and value to the community and help to change public attitudes towards civil parking enforcement. To assist parking managers in producing a successful and engaging report, this year PATROL hosted a series of Annual Report Toolkit workshops for over 60 councils around the country.
Caroline Sheppard, Chief Adjudicator of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, said: “The adjudicators welcome increased public information about parking as well as the councils’ active engagement in the development of FOAM (Fast Online Appeal Management), the tribunal’s online appeal system which has transformed the appeal process for appellants and councils promoting accessibility and transparency.”