BPA Live North On the road On 7 February, the first BPA Live roadshow will take place in the north of England. Richard Boultbee, chair of the Yorkshire and Humber group, Steve Foster, chair of the North East group, and Roy Tunstall, chair of the North West group, tell us more What were the main topics of interest for members at your recent meeting? Richard Boultbee (RB): We always have a broad agenda, so the whole membership benefits. BPA President Stuart Harrison updated us on the Private Parking Code of Practice, and we also discussed the National Parking Platform and the BPAs work on procurement frameworks. Steve Foster (SF): A big priority for our members is moving traffic enforcement (MTE). We were really grateful Richard Boultbee to Rob Shoebridge of Derby City Council who joined us virtually to share his teams experience of setting up and running MTE. We also had a great presentation from Furlong Energy on the subject of solar ports. While some local authorities, local authority members and issues with communications before such as Northumberland County Council, do have a solar port on the event. We are going to have better processes in place to ensure a car park, many of us were unaware of the levels of funding meeting information has a wider reach and gets to everyone or different structures around charging, so it was helpful in a timely manner, followed up with reminders. to have that information. SF: One of the biggest areas of concern is around the Roy Tunstall (RT): Our most recent meeting had to safety of civil enforcement officers. Members felt be cancelled so, unfortunately, its been a while since incidents are under-reported and they are not being we got together. Its why I am really looking forward prioritised by the police. This is where we need to to catching up with everyone at BPA Live. come together as a community to share the different initiatives to tackle this kind of behaviour. What challenges are being faced by RT: From recent conversations with members, members in the region? there is concern around the governments rhetoric of RB: For the first time in a while we had a low turnout stopping the war on the motorist and what that means at our recent meeting. This was due to a combination of for us in the parking sector. Moving traffic enforcement is Steve Foster factors, including a moratorium on most travel for some also a big topic. 28 PN Dec 2023 pp28-29 Regionals.indd 28 11/12/2023 11:55