This is the fourth quarterly Operational Report and and the final part of our Annual Report 2021/22. You can view the first three quarterly reports on our website.
Councillor Lissimore
Outgoing Committee Chair
“The North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) has had another successful year and achieved a great deal whilst also moving on from the pandemic.
NEPP continues to look at ways in which it can reduce its environmental impact and this year it has made a fantastic start to having a fully electric fleet by 2030, by purchasing its first five electric vehicles, which will soon be in operation across North Essex.
Delivering excellent customer service also continues to be a priority and the recently launched new website is a huge improvement and enables its users to access and submit information much more easily and keep up-to-date with services and all the latest developments.
The Park Safe Schools pilot has gone from strength to strength, with contraventions down by 84% in the last quarter! An incredible achievement and a really positive step towards improving road safety outside the schools participating in the pilot.
During my year as Chair, I have been impressed with NEPP’s hard work and dedication to improving parking services and road safety across North Essex. Its commitment to parking education and ambition to utilise new technologies is admirable and residents and visitors to North Essex all benefit from this work. One of my highlights of the year, was seeing this work recognised at a national level at the British Parking Awards. Another highlight for me was when Colchester became the first location in the UK to operate the MiPermit Park & Charge service.
I know NEPP has lots of exciting ideas for the future and am sure it will continue to deliver a high level of service for its partners and their local communities.”
Councillor Sue Lissimore Chair, North Essex Parking Partnership
Councillor Sue Lissimore, Chair of the North Essex Parking Partnership 2021-22
1 Service overview
The North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) is a council-run organisation which brings together all street-based parking in North Essex on behalf of Braintree, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Tendring and Uttlesford Councils.
Electric Vehicle Fleet
Our Electric Vehicle (EV) fleet has continued to grow, and we have now purchased an additional three vehicles, meaning we currently have five in total and are looking to increase this further. Read more in section 7.
New website launch
Our customers and stakeholders can now take advantage of our new user-friendly website, highlighting information about our services and parking across north Essex. The website boasts an updated and refreshed design with new features to improve usability. Read more in section 5.
Charging points launched
In our last operational report, we mentioned we had installed three electric vehicle (EV) charging points in Priory Street Car Park in Colchester as part of a pilot to test the new MiPermit Park and Charge service. After a successful trial with a group of local EV drivers the chargers have now been made available for public use. Read more in section 3.
2 On-Street parking
Bay sensor pilot continued
In our last operational report, we featured the bay sensor trial we launched in Crouch Street in Colchester. The pilot continued during this period and our Data-Led Services Team set up a bespoke digital dashboard to help us report on the data being gathered through the sensors.
Beside managing the kerbside of our highway network, we also work with our partner authorities in Braintree, Colchester, Harlow, and Uttlesford Councils to operate their car parks; this section describes more about the work we carry out.
Park & Charge System launched
The recent trial of the Park & Charge Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers in Priory Street Car Park in Colchester, proved to be highly successful and the chargers have now been made available for the public to use. This is the first location in the UK where the MiPermit Park & Charge service is operating! This exciting new service allows customers to pay for parking and electricity in one quick and easy MiPermit app transaction. There are plans for EV chargers and the Park and Charge service to eventually expand across the borough of Colchester and to other districts if desirable.
Park Mark Safer Parking
We are thrilled to announce that following an independent assessment, Braintree District Council’s car parks have been awarded the national Safer Parking Scheme’s Park Mark by the British Parking Association (BPA). The Park Mark award recognises the investment in car parks to actively deter crime, ensuring the safety of their customers and vehicles.
Renovation works at St Mary’s Car Park
Residents and visitors to Colchester can enjoy new widened parking bays, providing a refreshed look and improved parking experience on the ground floor of St Mary’s Car Park. After a successful trial, works were carried out to widen the parking bays on the ground floor of the car park. Walls and pillars have also been repainted, a new pedestrian walkway created, and the entrance bollard has been removed to create a wider entrance lane. Additional blue badge holder parking bays and the removal of bollards at the exit has also taken place.
Highlights
During the period 1 January to 31 March 2022:
4 Parking education
Silver 3PR package launched
Buckhurst Hill Community Primary School launched a silver 3PR package. This includes the standard educational resources received with all packages and included a patrolled zone outside the school – where pupils can earn 3PR tokens for walking, scooting or cycling into the zone.
Park Safe schools update
Our Park Safe Schools pilot has continued at four schools across Tendring and Colchester. We continue to work closely with the local schools, motorists and parents to educate and affect both behavioural and perception changes surrounding safe school parking. We’re pleased to report that during this quarter, parking and waiting restriction contraventions dropped by an incredible 84%. We will continue to monitor the pilot’s success and consider the next steps for this scheme.
5 People & performance
Our focus for the way we work is “Innovation, Efficiency, Education and Communication”.
Innovation
Work continues on the NEPP app
During this quarter, the Data Led Services Team has continued to work on a new PowerApps programme by collecting ideas and holding focus groups. These discussions will ensure the app enables the organisation to work more efficiently and improve communication between teams.
Efficiency
New organisational structure
To prepare for the new Joint Parking Agreement for NEPP to manage on-street parking on behalf of the County Council, some changes were necessary to the organisational structure so that we can operate the new service which the Agreement requires.
Following formal consultation, it was decided to retain a small staff hub at Braintree for staff and that this would be managed by the West team, meaning that we still end up with two, rather than three, full bases. The Operations and Technical Team are also being restructured, which will provide opportunities for staff throughout the organisation. The first appointments to the new structure were made at the end of March 2022, with the Group Development Manager and Group Operating Manager now in post, and further updates will feature in future reports as the transformation process progresses.
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Education
Staff training
Three members of staff successfully completed Data Analyst training which will enable the organisation to be even more data-led and efficient. Another member of our staff also passed their Agile Project Management (Foundation) Course in February.
Communication
New website launched
After months of hard work and reviewing customer feedback, we launched a new website in March. A key feature of which, is the improved site navigation and usability which has been achieved by the addition of a search bar function and a clearer, user-friendly layout.
The news and service updates will have individual pages per article, making it easier to find important information. Our operational and annual reports, such as this, will now be hosted on the website to improve accessibility.
6 Work programme
Our future aims will help shape our work for the coming financial year. Here is a taster of the projects that we will be focussing on.
Tariff board updates
Over the coming months we will be looking to do a complete overhaul of how our tariff boards are designed and positioned. The purpose of this project is to de-clutter the existing tariff boards, make them easier to understand for customers and modernise them with the use of QR codes. A trial template will be produced beginning with car parks in Colchester and should this be successful the design will be rolled out across all car parks in the NEPP districts.
Regulation changes on the horizon
By the end of May 2022, the Government expects to introduce legislation that will bring about the last pieces of the Traffic Management Act 2004, whereby the enforcement of moving traffic contraventions (known as Moving Traffic Enforcement, or ‘MTE’) will be partly decriminalised and local authorities may apply to take on the powers, shared with Police.
The Traffic Management Act 2004 is the enabling legislation under which the Regulations that we use for parking are made. For us, that will mean changes to the printing on Penalty Charge Notice, changes to the software that produces Notice to Owner and Charge Certificate documents, where two of the old regulations are quoted.
Some other changes will alter what we can do, and the way we do it, for instance simplifying where the charges are set out and removing from legislation some of the Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) descriptions which had been fixed in England outside London whilst the PCN Code Descriptions List has moved on considerably inside London.
Video series continues
Our series of videos informing our customers about the services we provide, continue to be well received. We will soon begin working on a 3PR video which we intend to use directly with schools who are interested in finding out more about the initiative.
Progressing the NEPP App
Following the focus groups and discussions we held about what we would like the new App to deliver, the project has now been passed to ICT to progress. In the coming months, we will be working on the structure and systems which need to be in place in order to deliver and support this exciting new tool.
7 How we invest and develop
Parking Projects
Technical Team electric vehicles
After successfully procuring two EV’s earlier on in the year, we have acquired another three Renault Zoe vans to be used primarily by the Technical Team but will also be available to all NEPP staff.
Electric fleet charging points
The installation of 10 charging points has been completed in St Johns Car Park, Colchester. This is to support our fleet transition to electric vehicles, whilst temporarily supporting Colchester Borough Council in charging their new vehicles too. Further sites to support our electric fleet transition are also being explored.
The North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) is a council-run organisation which brings together all street-based parking in North Essex on behalf of Braintree, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Tendring and Uttlesford Councils.
EV fleet
Over the last year we have acquired a total of five EVs in a move towards our commitment to operating with a fully electric fleet by 2030. We will be aiming to purchase more as soon as possible in order to continue to become a greener organisation.
New website
Investing in our website this year means we have radically improved the experience for our customers and stakeholders. We also have plans to continue to develop the website as our services evolve over the coming years and our customers’ needs and expectations change too.
Park Safe Schools
Improving road safety outside schools is a priority for NEPP and our Park Safe Schools pilot has been a tremendous success this year, initially decreasing contraventions by 56%, last quarter by 80% and this quarter by 84%! A huge improvement and step towards making the roads outside the schools in this pilot safer for all road users.
Video summary of 2021/22
We’ve created this short video to highlight our work and achievements from April 2021 to March 2022. The video features how we’ve moved on from the pandemic, including supporting our staff, delivering innovative projects, supporting our partners and much more.
This is the third quarterly Operational Report and will become part one of our Annual Report 2021/22, so you won’t have to wait until mid 2022 to see it!
1 Service overview
The North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) is a council-run organisation which brings together all street-based parking in North Essex on behalf of Braintree, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Tendring and Uttlesford Councils.
Future of on-street parking in Essex
The management and enforcement of on-street parking exists to facilitate safe and efficient movement on roads. The appropriate management of on-street parking can support safer neighbourhoods, school zones and local shopping areas by keeping roads free of obstructions.
The agreement with Essex County Council for NEPP to continue to manage on-street parking has been extended for an additional five years, with the possibility for a further three years extension beyond that.
Customer service week
In October, we took part in National Customer Service Week 2021 by sharing on social media some good news stories that our staff were involved with. Whilst carrying out their duties, one of our Civil Enforcement Officers helped a customer find a lost ring, they were extremely grateful for the ring to be returned and sent us a thank you email as a token of appreciation. On another occasion, two of our CEO’s patrolling in Harlow found a young, distressed girl who’d lost her bus ticket and had no way to get home. Concerned for her safety, they phoned the girl’s mum and arranged with a bus driver to get her home safely, for free. To find out more about customer service week, visit our twitter or search #NCSW21.
2 On-Street parking
Bay sensors
Twenty-five new parking sensors were introduced to Crouch Street West, Colchester, on the limited time parking bays as part of a pilot scheme.
The sensors detect whether a parking bay is occupied by a vehicle. The data will be used to better understand the usage of the parking bays. It will also eventually allow for availability of parking bays to be displayed within the MiPermit app and provide complementary data for considering the suitability of restrictions or used to guide future policy making.
This pilot will assist Essex County Council with their Active Travel Plan which has been under consultation. If you’d like to read more about the sensors click here.
Brake charity road safety week
In August, we supported Brake charity’s road safety week campaign on social media. This year the campaign focused on celebrating road safety heroes, people in the community that are actively contributing to improving road safety. As part of the campaign, we celebrated our Civil Enforcement Officers and how their daily patrols help to improve road safety. We also shared our blog post about what restrictions outside schools mean and why they are important.
3 Off-street parking
Beside managing the kerbside of our highway network, we also work with our partner authorities in Braintree, Colchester, Harlow, and Uttlesford Councils to operate their car parks; this section describes more about the work we carry out.
Priory street charging points
Work took place in December to install three electric vehicle charging points in Priory Street, Colchester. The charging points will host a trial for MiPermit to test their innovative new Park and Charge service, see section six. The trial will consist of a small group of electric vehicle drivers to provide feedback on the chargers and the usability of the app.
MiPermit discounts update
Colchester Castle signed up to the MiPermit Discounts scheme. The inclusion of Colchester Castle means the pilot now has 12 businesses all offering reduced parking rates to customers. With a wider range of businesses involved, it now offers customers a varied choice of shops to claim parking discounts. Other businesses recently added to the scheme include Colchester’s Visitor Information Centre and The Gym Group. October saw an increase of 224 discounts claimed compared to the previous month! The pilot will be reviewed in December.
Dashboard
During the period 1 October 31 December 2021:
4 Parking education
Four 3PR packages launched
From October to December 2021, we launched four new 3PR packages. Bronze packages were launched at; De Vere Primary School in Halstead, Kingsmoor Academy in Harlow and Friars Grove School in Colchester. St James Church of England Primary School in Colchester received a silver package, which included a patrol system with children who walk, scoot or cycle into the dedicated 3PR zone. We’re pleased we could provide this many schools with 3PR packages and improve road safety outside their gates.
3PR focus groups
In order for us to expand the 3PR trial into Secondary as well as Primary schools, we will be running a series of focus groups with some selected schools in the coming months to identify some Secondary schools to work with.
Park Safe schools update
Once again, we are pleased to report the success of the Park Safe Schools pilot. We have continued to work with schools, motorists and parents to educate and affect both behavioural and perception changes surrounding safe school parking.
The number of contraventions decreased by 80% at the end of 2021, in comparison to April, this is a further 16% decrease to what was achieved by the end of the academic year in July. The scheme has continued to reduce the amount of dangerous and illegal parking occurring outside schools, an excellent sign that road safety outside the schools involved in the pilot has improved.
The schools to benefit are the four pilot sites; covering the school clearway parking restrictions outside the Chase Lane Primary School in Dovercourt, the Stanway Fiveways Primary, Stanway Secondary and Lexden Springs Residential Special schools, in Colchester. NEPP has started to begin assessing where to move these cameras to, with the aim to continue improving safety across new locations in North Essex.
5 People & performance
Our focus for the way we work is “Innovation, Efficiency, Education and Communication”.
Innovation
Work is underway on a NEPP app
Work has begun by the Data Led Services Team on a new PowerApps programme for NEPP. Microsoft PowerApps is an application creator that enables users to build mobile – and web – based forms and apps. The team have scheduled focus groups with managers and specialists from across the partnership to help identify ideas for business scenarios, understand where things overlap across the different services and how best to prioritise workloads.
Efficiency
Project Neptune
As mentioned in section one, due to the extension of the agreement to manage on-street parking, some changes were necessary so that we can operate the new service which the agreements require.
It is proposed to merge the Braintree operation with the West and East teams, so that we end up with two, rather than three, bases. The operations and technical team will also be restructured, which will provide opportunities for staff throughout the organisation. There will be more updates on Project Neptune in future reports as the transformation process progresses.
Education
NEPP staff news special: CEO’s
In October, we sent a staff news special email, to give an overview of the Civil Enforcement Officer role. It included a summary of the duties of a CEO and a walkthrough of their typical working day. The newsletter gave other members of staff an insight into what life is like as a member of the operations team, which is especially important in a time where working from home is the norm and meeting other teams may not be as regular.
Staff training
Two members of staff successfully completed their WAMITAB course, which focused on developing conflict management skills for individuals employed as Civil Enforcement Officers, Parking Attendants, Parking Enforcement Officers and CCTV Enforcement Officers.
One member of staff received their ILM3 qualification, which looks at personal and professional development, helping the learner to identify their own development needs and plan how to fulfil them. It develops practical team management skills and covers the theory behind people management, leadership and business.
Communication
Podcasts launching
We are soon to release a new series of podcasts. Work has begun on a pilot episode which will help inform staff of important information about the organisation, including what projects we are focusing on. Series one will focus on interviews with key managers to give staff a greater insight into team NEPP.
6 Work programme
Our future aims will help shape our work for the coming financial year. Here is a taster of the projects that we will be focussing on.
Bay markings
Residents and visitors to Colchester will be able to enjoy new widened parking bays, providing a refreshed look and improved parking experience on the ground floor of St Mary’s Car Park, Balkerne Hill. After a successful trial was complete, see section seven, the decision has been made to repaint and widen the rest of the parking bays on the ground floor. This is part of a wider renovation project which will eventually see the removal of the entrance bollards and repainting around other sections of the car park.
Website launch
We are planning to launch the new website in the coming months. A key feature is the improved site navigation and usability which has been achieved by the addition of a search bar function and a clearer, user-friendly layout.
The news and service updates will have individual pages per article, making it easier to find important information. There will also be a new look for the operational and annual reports, which will now be hosted on the website to improve accessibility.
Priory Street charging points launch
As mentioned in section three, once the trial phase is complete, we will be launching the EV chargers for public use. This will be the first location in the UK where the Park & Charge service will be operating. The service allows customers to pay for parking and electricity on one fast and easy MiPermit app transaction. There are plans for EV chargers and the Park and Charge service to eventually expand across the borough and to other districts if desirable.
Technical team electric vehicles
After successfully procuring two EV’s earlier on in the year, we will be looking to acquire another three Renault Zoe vans to be used primarily by the technical team which will also be available to all NEPP staff. These will also receive a bespoke livery design which will be similar to the livery planned for the Park Safe car, but with a focus on NEPP branding.
NEPP fleet EV charging
We are also going to be installing electric vehicle charging points in Colchester. These charging points will be used to support the move to a fully electric fleet for NEPP and will provide a charging hub for NEPP vehicles.
7 How we invest and develop
Parking Projects
Play the music!
In December, visitors and residents using St Mary’s carpark, Colchester, were greeted with festive tunes through the speakers. Hoping to brighten the mood of the car park users and tap into the power of music to uplift the spirits we are thrilled with this new initiative. Going forward, we plan to continue playing music and will look to tap into local events such as the Roman River Music Festival and other events happening across the town.
New bay marking trial
As mentioned in section six, we are conducted a trial in St Mary’s car park to increase the size of parking bays to offer customers a better and more premium parking offering. We have marked up two bays to demonstrate this new layout. The work involved turning what used to be three bays into two, providing a larger parking area and greater customer satisfaction.
