EPA Congress Parking partners Manny Rasores de Toro, the BPAs representative on the European Parking Associations policy and strategy committee, reports on this years impressive EPA Congress and Exhibition in Malaga, Spain he European Parking Association (EPA) Congress is hosted by the national body where the event is held. This year, it was the turn of the Spanish parking association, ASESGA, assisted by the EPA, and was held in the city of Malaga. As you can imagine, a significant amount of work goes into a major international conference such as this, with a full, three-day programme, a major exhibition featuring parking solutions, and two evening social events. The hosts did a great job. The venue, organisation, ambience and, most importantly, quality of the presentations, speakers and subjects covered as well as the unique Spanish/Andalusian/Malaga flavour throughout was very impressive. All the papers and research activities that I managed to attend were extremely relevant, informative and inspiring, delivering key messages about the vital role parking plays in the fast-evolving world of sustainable urban mobility. T Common ground Everything started with a meeting of global parking association leaders. This now regular fixture is a gathering of parking and mobility associations from around the world, discussing matters that affect us all and how we can work together to resolve them. Many European countries were represented, as were the US and Canada, while Andrew Pester, Nigel Williams and I were representing the BPA. Although we all have our own local issues, it was clear from our meeting that parking professionals across the globe have a lot in common, too such as the pressure to tackle congestion and emissions, particularly when caused by traffic circling for available on-street spaces. It is interesting to hear everyones concerns for the future and attempt to find agreement on how to solve these issues, using that knowledge to influence national and local policies. Most of the associations highlighted the growing and serious problems around disabled badges in their countries. The issues are 32 britishparking.co.uk PN Nov19 pp32-35 EPA Report.indd 32 24/10/2019 15:18