On March 28th 2020, the Local Government Chronicle, the voice of local authorities across the UK, was due to host its annual award ceremony. Unfortunately covid-19 had other plans for the usually glitzy evening, postponing the event and ultimately pushing it online.
Exactly seven months later, and with over 1500 local government professionals in attendance, the awards took place, virtually celebrating the local government initiatives around the country that have made a difference in their communities.
🏆 And the winners are…
It’s with great excitement that we can announce our initiative with Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) and North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC), won the Innovation Award for our Smart City Parking (SCP) solution. It’s a huge privilege to receive this award from a publication that is at the heart of local government news and opinion.
Through the award-winning initiative, residents and visitors to Harrogate have been benefiting from real-time availability and seamless pay-as-you-go payments via the AppyParking mobile app. We can report that a survey in August found 93 percent of users said Smart City Parking is more convenient than Pay & Display, 62 percent said they stay longer in Harrogate as a result of the scheme, and close to 60 percent of users reported that the solution saved them time, reducing their number of miles driven.
For the local authorities, the system provides them with complete visibility over their kerbside via an analytics dashboard. Councils are able to see occupancy patterns and payment events that can be monitored in both real-time and historically, enabling an enhanced level of insight over currently available systems. This data has informed parking strategies and helped Harrogate improve the management of parking assets.
”I’m delighted to hear that Harrogate’s AppyParking has been recognised in these prestigious awards.
The visitor and leisure economy is essential to Harrogate, and now more than ever, as we combat the pandemic, it’s vital to do all we can to make it easy and safe for people to visit. Smart parking not only gives people confidence that they will be guided to a parking space, but also that they can pay without needing to touch a ticket machine.
The smart parking system was the first of its kind in the UK. We continually seek innovative ways to improve traffic flow in Harrogate and smart parking fits well with that ambition.
The system also provides very useful data to us about the occupation of individual spaces which is useful when making decisions about town centre parking strategies in the future.
North Yorkshire County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access
”It’s wonderful news to hear that the AppyParking trial in Harrogate town centre has won the Innovation award in the LGC Awards, designed to celebrate excellence in local government.
Our aim from the start was to make parking easier and more convenient for people, as well as provide a parking solution that encourages people to visit should public transport or active travel not be an option. These days so many services and payments are carried out on a smartphone, it’s only right that parking is part of that.
Feedback from customers who use it has been positive and this additional recognition shows what a beneficial project it has been.
Councillor Phil Ireland, Harrogate Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Carbon Reduction and Sustainability
”We’re delighted to receive this award for innovation from LGC. Our Smart City Parking solution is the first of its kind in the UK, and we’re grateful for the forward-thinking approaches of both North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council to enable us to bring it to life in Harrogate, and help its residents save valuable time finding and paying for parking. We’re on a mission to help local authorities and businesses unlock the potential of kerbsides, and this award is a great recognition of that.
Dan Hubert, Founder and CEO of AppyWay
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