Sunderland City Council was last night (Monday 11 July) recognised for best practise reporting in the Presentation of Finance and Statistics category at the PATROL PARC Awards (Parking Annual Report Awards by Councils) held at the Houses of Parliament and hosted by David Rutley MP. Councillor Richard Bell, Julie Tunstall and Gemma Jeffries received the award on behalf of the council from Mike Penning MP, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice and Home Office.Sunderland City Council was also shortlisted for the Concise Report Award.
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. This year PATROL introduced new categories to recognise councils for best practise reporting in three distinct areas.
The Presentation of Finance and Statistics award recognises the local authority who has presented what can often be a complex set of data in the clearest, most transparent way, helping customers understand the role of civil enforcement, how revenue is generated and what it is allocated to.
Councillor Jamie Macrae, Chair of the PATROL Joint Committee, said of Trafford Council “The Transport Select Committee report into Local Authority Parking Enforcement in 2013 highlighted the importance of parking revenue accounts. Sunderland has provided easily digestible financial and statistical information to support their annual report.”
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.
The winner of the Best Report Award was Brighton & Hove Council whilst the Borough of Broxbourne picked up the Best Concise Award. Best practice reporting awards were also presented to Nottingham City Council for Customer Service and Trafford Council for Innovation and New Services.
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.
The workshops build on the success of the launch of the Annual Report Toolkit in 2015, created to make it easier for local authorities to meet their statutory reporting requirements as set out in the
Department for Communities and Local Government’s Local Authority Transparency Code 2015 as well as the Department for Transport’s Statutory Guidance.
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.”