Partnership working Together for change In a year that has seen extraordinary partnership working and knowledge sharing throughout the BPA community in response to the Covid-19 crisis, there have also been partnerships working to lobby government and help shape legislation. Louise Parfitt talks to the members of one such team, responsible for representing members views on the finer details of Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 knew before my interview that this group of BPA members know each other well. I also knew they had varied specialisms, some big personalities, and a huge task to ensure they represent the interests of the parking profession among voices from very different perspectives on some potentially contentious issues. Lets just say I imagined there could be fireworks. Indeed, there were some fairly robust debates along the way, says Steve Clark, BPA director of operations and business development. Did anybody throw their toys out the pram? Yes, I most certainly did. But were all passionate about what were seeking to achieve, and I think the team dynamic worked really well in dealing with some quite precious situations. Clark represents the BPA on the British Standards Institute (BSI) steering group for the Parking (Code of Practice) (PCOP) Act 2019, alongside Mark Anfield, operations director at ParkingEye. They are supported by Grahame Rose, director at GroupNexus, Gary Osner, managing director at ZZPS, and Steve Thompson, parking consultant, with advice from BPA Lawlines Derek Millard-Smith. Anfield, Rose and Osner sit on the BPA board as parking on private land operator representatives, while Thompson is a BPA fellow. Thompson also chairs the BPAs code review group, on which the others have also worked. Each of them reached out to their extended network to ask for feedback on certain issues, but were somewhat limited in what they were allowed by the BSI to share with other BPA members. It was a challenge, but weve had a flexible approach, says Anfield. We know where the BPA stands, and what other operators need and want. We always had an aim to listen objectively and respond as positively as we could. I We headed off quite a bit of members anxiety simply by being available regularly. I think it made a huge difference Being constructive and finding solutions meant having good communication in the group. An important point is the level of respect we have for each other, says Osner. When people spoke, the others listened. We may not have agreed the whole time, but it was easy to get a view across and then debate it as grown-ups. Surprising advantage Its here that they say something that surprises me: the virtualmeeting world enforced on us by the Covid-19 lockdown worked to their advantage Anfield calls it a game-changer. They met more often, but for shorter periods of time, which they believe was more productive. They also felt the platform freed them in some respects: it was easier to put aside egos, listen well and reach a common goal. It helped us formulate our responses more carefully, says Rose. Theres another dimension to remote communications, which is contact with the members, Thompson adds. We held a number of BPA webinars that had really high engagement. If we hadnt had lockdown, wed probably have had some of that, but it wouldnt have become a regular part of doing business. So, in that respect, we headed off quite a bit of members anxiety simply by being available regularly. I think it made a huge difference. The importance of trust among the team and in terms of the wider membership cannot be overstated in ensuring committees achieve the best results. We had to ask members to trust us to get on with it, says Clark. We tried to answer the questions they had to the best of our ability. But there are certain questions that we were genuinely unable to answer because of the limits on what we were allowed to say, and I am grateful that members understood that. 38 britishparking.co.uk PN Dec 2020 pp38-39 PCOP.indd 38 23/11/2020 16:15