News
22 Jan 08Parking Under The Spotlight
Borough of Poole has received top marks in a recent mystery shopping exercise, confirming that residents receive first class parking services in Poole.
Transportation Services received a gold award from 'Parking Associates' 
showing the overall parking operation in Poole is efficient and works within industry standards.
The exercise saw a 'mystery shopper' posing as a customer in real-life scenarios involving on-street parking attendants and office staff at the Civic Centre and St John's House.
The exercise took place over a four week period and included tasks to assess parking attendants' responses to unlawful parking and to see how office staff handled requests for information and advice on parking related matters.
The report from 'Parking Associates' confirmed that parking schemes in Poole are well designed and give clear instructions to drivers on where they can park. It also highlighted that the parking attendants approached were friendly, polite, helpful and knowledgeable.
Office procedures were judged to be good, in particular the process for querying the issue of Penalty Charge Notices. This involves a form that can be completed during the customers' visit, rather than them having to return home and write a letter.
Cllr Mike White, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Transportation, Borough of Poole, said: "The mystery shopper exercise is a great way of ensuring our parking services meet industry standards and that our service is customer focused, offering safe and secure parking options at a reasonable price."
The report recommends a review of street visits for parking attendants to ensure a greater presence on streets in certain areas. It also suggests that parking attendant uniforms should be more identifiable to the public.
Transportation Services excellent work is further highlighted as nine Council car parks have been assessed and submitted for the 'Park Mark' Safer Parking Award.
Poole already has 10 accredited car parks in the scheme, the nine additional car parks nominated for the award are; Chapel Lane, Sainsbury's Supermarket (Pitwines), New Orchard, Shore Road (off street), Jubilee Road, Norris Road, Commercial Road, Penn Hill and Revine Road.
Richard Hein, Parking Services Manager, Borough of Poole, said: "From April 2007 until the end of December 2007, 3,381,676 customers used Council car parks and only 10 crimes were reported. In the same period, of the nine car parks nominated for Park Mark, there were 850494 customers and not a single crime reported. These figures demonstrate the very low levels of crime overall in Council-controlled, Poole car parks."
Directgov