Positive parking

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is the largest in England. It includes the biggest teaching hospital in Europe, five hospitals, 14,000 staff and 5,000 car park spaces under management.
    
With any city centre hospital, car parking is always at a premium and it is important that staff, patients and visitors can get to hospitals easily by public transport, but also that they can actually park at the hospital when they need to.

Improving availability
With the opening of the new Bexley Wing in December 2007 - home to one of the country’s largest cancer centres, the St James’s Institute of Oncology - came a new 1,284-space, eight-storey car park for visitors and staff. It is linked to the main building by a covered walkway and has markedly improved the availability of parking for patients and visitors.
    
Safety and public confidence are always big concerns when it comes to the management of car parking areas. The Safer Parking Scheme (SPS), run by the British Parking Association (BPA) for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), is aimed at reducing crime and the fear of crime in parking areas. It has been designed to create a benchmark standard for all parking areas across the UK, providing safer parking areas, both for the public and their vehicles.
    
Six months after its opening, the new car park at St James's has received the Park Mark® award, the brand of the Safer Parking Scheme.    
    
To achieve the award, police accredited assessors undertake a site specific risk assessment, taking into account management and maintenance of the car parking facility. The operator must put in place measures appropriate to the surroundings that help to deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, thereby doing everything they can to prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime in their parking area.

Safety and security
The new car park at St James’s was constructed with safety and security in mind, and Leeds NHS quickly responded to feedback from users, such as the availability of signage within the car park, and improvements have been made. Security measures include the facility to restrict pedestrian access into the car park by having to use tickets obtained from the pay and foot entry barriers, and roller shutter doors at the main vehicle entrance that can be closed during the late evening to further improve security.
    
National statistics show that around 22 per cent of vehicle crimes occur in car parks. Many parking facilities with the Park Mark® award have experienced a dramatic reduction in crime or, where facilities do not experience vehicle-related crime, have been able to create an environment where customers feel safe, encouraging repeat custom.
    
Bob Bilton FIPP, deputy head of Logistics, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust commented: "We have high levels of security in the new car park and the response from everyone using it has been very positive. We feel the Safer Parking Scheme will benefit staff, patients and visitors and sets a standard for the provision of parking services across our Trust and within hospitals in Yorkshire."
    
Other car parks within the Trust are maintained using CCTV and patrols by traffic staff. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust aims to improve CCTV coverage to some of its car parks and also add automatic barrier systems to help manage car parking across its sites. The Trust is committed to improving all its parking facilities for users and the goal is to have them accredited under the Safer Parking Scheme.

Older car parks
Putting in measures to older car parks to meet the criteria of the Safer Parking Scheme is not necessarily expensive and can be straightforward to implement, as the vast majority of car parks are already safe and non-threatening environments and will need little, if any, changes in order to achieve Park Mark® status.
    
In February 2006, the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS) undertook a survey of car park provision in NHS health bodies across England. The aim was to build as accurate a picture as possible of the numbers of car parks and the arrangements in the NHS.
    
The survey also obtained information on how the NHS is performing in relation to the Safer Parking Scheme. Approximately 3,600 car parks out of the estimated 9,677 facilities across NHS Trusts were surveyed. NHS health bodies currently manage a total of 125 car parks that have achieved Park Mark® status, predominantly in the acute sector. Acute Trusts are more likely to apply for the scheme as their car parks are generally larger and experience a greater flow of people.
    
The Safer Parking Scheme is about providing the highest levels of customer service and safety, and there is a real opportunity for more hospitals to join the scheme. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is taking a lead in Yorkshire and showing its commitment to patient care across the board.

Kelvin Reynolds is the director of Technical Services & head of Safer Parking Scheme at The British Parking Association