Driving Improvement Awards

PATROL’s Driving Improvement Awards (DIAs) programme funds and develops public awareness and engagement campaigns that focus on important or long-standing issues faced by authorities enforcing traffic restrictions.

Authorities have the chance to submit a bid for funding to develop a campaign or activity to effect change, both in their local area and replicable nationally. This could include public information, social media, marketing or PR.

‘The Driving Improvement Awards offer a fantastic opportunity for local authority teams to showcase their creativity in and commitment to addressing local challenges, helping to drive change nationally.’

Laura Padden
PATROL Director

Tackling the issues that matter

PATROL’s overarching aim for the DIAs is to tackle key issues in parking and traffic enforcement by helping to create engaging content that drives improvement in either the delivery of services, engagement with the public or public perception and understanding.

Bids for funding to carry out a campaign or activity are encouraged around a specific theme each year, based on current or pressing issues and trends in the enforcement landscape.

Winning authorities are supported to implement their project, with outcomes, learnings and best practice shared with all PATROL members. In this way, authorities across England (outside London) and Wales can replicate the success of the campaign or activity in their own communities, also reducing the financial burden of running such a campaign. This approach also helps elevate successful initiatives to a national level, amplifying their impact.

2024-25 Awards – Theme:
Abuse of enforcement staff

In the Awards’ first year, PATROL has chosen the theme of abuse experienced by civil enforcement officers and other enforcement staff. This focus was chosen in response to the consistent and high-profile negative public sentiment towards parking enforcement across authorities.

Recent research highlights the alarming frequency of such incidents, with 84% of parking managers reporting monthly verbal abuse and 20% reporting physical abuse occurring just as frequently. The severity of these attacks is deeply troubling, with some incidents involving vehicles being driven at officers and other physical attacks leading to serious injuries. Back-office staff also experience verbal and sometimes face-to-face abuse from the public, whether over the phone, via email or within council walk-in centres.

This behaviour not only compromises the safety of staff and hampers the effectiveness of enforcement efforts, but also presents a barrier to recruitment.

Enforcement staff abuse: The facts

  • 84% of parking managers are abused monthly
  • 20% of are abused physically
  • Many enforcement officers report symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Body worn cameras are now standard issue to officers

2024-25 Awards – Resources

2024-25 Campaign: ‘Beyond the Uniform’

Beyond the Uniform is a public information campaign focused on humanising the role of parking civil enforcement officers and other traffic enforcement staff who experience abuse from the public.

The campaign was spearheaded by Brighton & Hove City Council and North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP), running separate activities in their local areas under the Beyond the Uniform brand until April 2025. The two authorities will report on outcomes in the summer, with PATROL looking to help coordinate a national roll-out of the campaign with its wider authority membership.

Winning authorities and campaign microsite links (open in new tabs):

Shortlist and awards event: