Westminster's parking team win national award (24/09/2007)

Westminster City Council's parking team have won the prestigious e-commerce award at the National Customer Service Awards (Tuesday 18th September) for the introduction of the innovative pay by phone parking.

The awards, held at Grosvenor House Hotel, celebrate the effect and impact of excellent customer service on the consumer and businesses. The e-commerce category recognises that e-commerce can play a successful role in delivering high standard customer service.

Westminster's pay by phone parking scheme has been a success since the trial began in October 2006 and is an example of how communication technologies can be used to improve customer services, with people finding it safer, easier and more convenient to pay for parking.

People can pay for their parking space by sending a simple text message. The pay by phone service also provides optional text message reminders when parking time is about to run out and easy top up payments for parking extensions from wherever you are.

Congratulating the parking team, Councillor Danny Chalkley, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Transport said: "The introduction of pay by phone parking illustrates how, if we really understand what our customers want, apply the right technology and are prepared to alter how we work we can make substantial improvements to people's quality of life - and reduce our costs.

"Pay by phone parking shows that we are setting the pace in parking nationally and the fact that this is the fifth UK award the parking team have picked up this year shows the team are special. This award demonstrates the progress we have made in transforming our service from a parking pariah to a multi-award winning team, focused on the customer."

Kevin Goad, Head of Parking for Westminster City Council, collected the award on behalf of his team. He said: "This was a bold project that's really transforming how people park in the centre of London and how we manage our service. There was no guarantee this project would be successful - it involved a lot of new technology and numerous stakeholders.

"The fact we've done it to budget and on time, and it has received consistently positive feedback is a testament to what we can achieve and should be a model for other teams to follow."

ENDS