North East Lincolnshire Council produces best 2020/21 Annual Report
North East Lincolnshire Council has been judged Overall Winner of PATROL’s 2022 Promoting Awareness of Civil Enforcement through Reporting (PACER) Awards.
The Council’s 2020/21 Annual Report on its parking and traffic operations came out on top among a host of excellent submissions to PATROL’s awards programme this year. The team from North East Lincolnshire were presented with their award together with this year’s other award winners (see below) during a reception at the House of Commons on Tuesday 12 July, hosted by Huw Merriman, MP for Bexhill and Battle and Chair of the Transport Committee.
The event was also attended by other Transport Committee members Simon Jupp, MP for East Devon, and Ruth Cadbury, MP for Brentford and Isleworth.
2022 PACER Awards winners
- North East Lincolnshire Council: Overall Winner
A report that is attractively presented, easy to read and makes great use of statistics, graphics and imagery. It also features lots of engaging information putting the department’s work in context, content on new services, as well as useful guidance and links. It really is a standout entry and complete package, with lots of local character. - Dacorum Borough Council: Best for Customer Service
The report really puts the customer at the heart of its content, from a robust background on the service and recent statistics, to a section that identifies the different parts of a parking tariff sign – full of practical and useful information. - Hampshire County Council: Best for Finance and Statistics
The report makes great use of design to display, in a captivating, visually appealing way, a wide range of statistics relating to the operation and performance of the service. - Gloucestershire County Council: Best for Innovation and New Services
The report dedicates lots of content to new and recent developments, from projects relating to electric vehicles and active travel, to how the team responded to the challenge of COVID-19, all vibrantly presented with good use of design and graphics. - Devon County Council: Best Concise Report
The ‘less is more’ format to this report provides an excellent round-up of the service and team’s activities for the year in short, digestible sections, complemented by graphics that don’t distract from the content. - North Essex Parking Partnership: Best Use of Design
The report really stands out with a consistent and engaging design throughout, and great use of imagery to ‘bring to life’ and present information in a manner suitable for the content across the board. The report’s visual identity is matched on the service website. - East Sussex County Council: Best Use of Digital Channels
A web-based report that features clear navigation and concise, digestible sections, including well-formatted financial figures and statistics. The online report is accompanied by a fantastic video in the introduction, presented by Councillor Claire Dowling.
All the awards were decided by an independent Review Group that included Lorraine Martin (nee Rushton), Parking Services Manager at Cheshire East Council – the winning authority at last year’s awards – Jo Abbott (Communications Manager, RAC – Retired) and David Leibling (Transport Consultant).
‘On behalf of the Joint Committee, I’d like to congratulate North East Lincolnshire and all the other winners on their hugely impressive reports this year,’ said Laura Padden, Director of PATROL. ‘The quality, creativity and scope of reports continues to get better, inspiring others to excel in their communications with the public, with yet more new authorities in the mix this time round.’
The PACER Awards form part of PATROL’s commitment to promoting best practice in public information to increase understanding of traffic management objectives.
An Annual Report – well structured, accessible and utilising the best available communication mediums – provides an opportunity to set out clearly and transparently the ‘what, why and how’ of an authority’s civil enforcement activities. In doing so, they can provide the vital context around the traffic management objectives that lie behind enforcement, which are ultimately in place to meet the needs of residents, businesses and visitors.
