Parking management Safety first Managing parking and traffic flow over the festive period is often a demanding task, even for the most experienced parking professional. But when the police recommend extra security measures are put in place to keep shoppers and revellers safe, everything steps up several notches, as Louise Parfitt finds out ast your mind back to December: rising Covid cases, vaccination centre staff stepping up again to get as many people boosted as possible, and the tightening of working and socialising restrictions. For parking managers used to dealing with increased parking demand over this period, Covid once again trampled over carefully prepared plans and invited uncertainty out to play. Their job just got a whole lot harder. In Chester, parking services manager Ken Prior had an additional challenge with which to deal. Chester and Chester West Council implemented increased anti-terrorism measures such as extended use of its security bollards following consultation with Cheshire Police. This was because of the heightened national terrorism threat that was in place and the increased numbers of people expected to come into Chester city centre for the Christmas market and festivities. The UK terrorism threat level had recently increased to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, says Chief Superintendent Martin Cleworth, of Cheshire Police. The bollards were just part of an overall plan across Cheshire, together with overt armed policing and Project Servator our deployment of specialist behaviour detection officers in the city centre to further enhance our safety measures in the run-up to Christmas, which, as we know, is our busiest time for the city. Im confident that Chester is as protected as its ever been. C Keeping people safe The hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) bollards were installed in 2020 under the existing traffic regulation order when the council changed the original barriers for these Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) accredited and tested ones. The bollards are usually in operation throughout the week, when the town centre is at its busiest. They can stop a range of large vehicles travelling at high speeds, helping to prevent a vehicle being used a weapon as has been seen in other places where large numbers of people gathered and allow the centre to be locked down in minutes if needed. Only certain traffic was allowed in during these enhanced security measures when the bollards were raised. The idea is that we control who is there and why, Prior says. My team is used to managing the controls around the bollards, but with them now up for longer, we had an increased level of responsibility and work to protect the crowds during this period. Educate and inform Communication with those affected residents, businesses, the Post Office, couriers and delivery drivers was key. This was aided by utilising established relationships that exist between the council and partner organisations. Most people were supportive and understood that these measures had been put in place to protect them, Prior says. My team had to explain to the public that the closures were there to keep people safe, and had to direct drivers including residents, traders and Blue Badge holders to alternative parking locations. Extra parking provision was put in to allow Blue Badge vehicles to drop off passengers at a central taxi rank and 22 britishparking.co.uk PN March 2022 pp22-23 Festive final.indd 22 22/02/2022 16:15