[C]umbria County Council’s Parking Service team has been highly commended for best practice reporting in customer service at the PATROL PARC Awards (Parking Annual Report Awards by Councils) held at the Houses of Parliament and hosted by Huw Merriman, MP for Bexhill and Battle. Phil Greenup, Senior Manager Regulatory Services and Austin Shields, Parking Manager for Cumbria County Council received the award on behalf of the council.
PATROL’s annual awards ceremony, presented by Gyles Brandreth, recognises the local authorities who have published the best reports on their parking services, as part of their civil enforcement reporting. The category of customer service is designed to praise those who report on steps they have taken to proactively engage with their community.
The PARC Review Group commented: “Cumbria County Council is responsible for the enforcement of on-street parking places. The report highlights improvements brought to the customer experience through the council’s website. On-street, Cumbria has introduced contact cards to signpost customers if they have parking queries. Mention is also made of working with the wider council customer service staff to improve awareness of parking services.”
Councillor Keith Little, Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet member for Highways and Transport, said: “Cumbria County Council established a county-wide, on-street parking enforcement service in March 2015. The Council aims to deliver a fair and transparent Parking Service and since this date has produced and published a yearly Parking Services Annual Report. Throughout the year team members are encouraged to submit suitable content material for inclusion in the Report; including details of events, initiatives and positive customer feedback. The Report provides the Council with an opportunity to highlight its engagement activities with local communities, partners and other stakeholders when striving to improve the parking offer for Cumbria’s diverse communities and the millions of visitors who visit the county each year. We are delighted that our work has been recognised in these awards and look forward to building on this success in future years.”
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.
