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.

2025-26 Awards – Theme:
Blue Badge abuse and misuse

PATROL has chosen the theme of Blue Badge abuse and misuse as a growing and ever more widely reported issue impacting all its authority members, with recent data indicating continuing rises in both badge thefts and fraudulent use.

A huge 1000% increase in Blue Badge fraud and misuse has been reported since 2016, with an estimated 20% of all badges now thought to be misused. Blue Badge abuse undermines the integrity of the disabled parking scheme and the rights of disabled motorists – so much so, that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has himself recently committed the Government to taking steps to address the issue.

There has, therefore, never been a better time for councils to increase public awareness on the issue of Blue Badge abuse and its prevalence in communities

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Blue Badge abuse and misuse: The facts

  • 1000% increase in fraud and misuse since 2016
  • 20% of all badges are misused
  • Badge theft increased by 400% in London between 2014–23
  • >700k PCNs issued for misuse of disabled bays 2022–24

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.

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

Shortlist and awards event: