Client: Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University (BU) is a public university in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, with its main Talbot Campus site situated in neighbouring Poole. It has its second campus site, at the Lansdowne in central Bournemouth.
BU has around 18,000 (15,000 FTE) students and 1,800 staff.
There are a total of around 1,200 parking spaces across both campus sites, with approximately 800 at the Talbot Campus site and 400 at the Lansdowne Campus site.
The University is undertaking a significant investment program. In November 2014 the Board approved a revised Estates Development Framework which sets out the 40-year vision for the development of our estate.
Substantial progress has been made with three major developments in 2014/15. The Framework covers £146 million of estate investment to 2020.
Over the period of the strategic plan the University will need to be adaptable to the demands of the sector.
Client Issues
In November 2017, BU lost 94 spaces at the Lansdowne Campus and purchased circa 100 permits for a local Council car park at a significant cost to BU. This is a 2 1/2-year temporary measure until the Bournemouth Gateway Building (BGB) development is completed and parking re-provided (estimated in spring 2020).
The Bournemouth Gateway Building (BGB) is a new development that will be completed in early 2020.
The Bournemouth Gateway Building will accommodate the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (HSS) and will deliver a unified base for the Faculty’s education, research and office activities. It will provide an additional 114 spaces to offset some losses in parking provision.
BU has forecast a total parking deficit of approximately 220 spaces by 2025, across both campus sites. BU is currently consulting on a refreshed Travel Plan to cover the period 2019 to 2025. A key objective of the refreshed Travel Plan will be to address this forecast parking deficit.
BU’s issues are summarised below:
- A loss of significant parking capacity due to redevelopment and planned population growth;
- The need to align the Parking Policy with Travel Plan objectives;
- BU’s parking facilities are enforced by a single patrol officer. The patrol officer is required to travel between campus sites during enforcement and is often redeployment during a parking patrol to provide security services;
- BU want to implement Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to improve service efficiencies;
- A need to understand peak capacity issues; and
- BU want to attract ancillary revenue from their parking assets outside core hours of operation to fund the investment in parking services and hardware.
Our Solution
The Parking Consultancy (TPC) was appointed to help the University explore opportunities for the procurement of a new, standalone car parking management and enforcement contract.
As part of the contract, BU wanted to introduce ANPR to manage and record occupancy and to provide more efficient enforcement of parking facilities whilst providing the potential for ancillary revenue generation by the utilisation of its parking resource outside of core hours of operation for paid use by the public.
Services Provided
In order to deliver the University’s requirements, the following services were provided
- Audits of all car parking sites within the scope of the project to identify which sites were suitable for ANPR;
- Development of a Technical Specification of requirements which was used within the final Invitation to Tender;
- Sourced suitable suppliers and assisted in soft market testing;
- Developed a scoring methodology and questions to evaluate submitted tenders;
- Evaluated and scored returned tenders;
- Sought clarification on tender responses;
- Shortlisted companies for interview;
- Undertook supplier interviews; and
- Provided our final recommendations for the contract award.
The Results
Over a 4-month period, 3 preferred suppliers were identified from an initial list of 12 companies that showed an interest at the soft market testing stage.
Through the competitive tendering exercise, TPC was able to significantly reduce the cost of operation whilst bringing significant new benefits to car park management and enforcement.
These included:
- Increased enforcement patrol cover of the two campuses;
- ANPR technology at the Talbot Campus and 3 sites at the Landsdowne campus;
- 3 sites identified capable of attracting ancillary revenue from public parking;
- Improved permit management through the use of virtual parking permit;
- Significant cost savings by replacing scratch cards;
- Improved financial, PCN activity and occupancy data reporting;
- Improved car park management and compliance, with a cost natural model of operation; and
- Alignment of the Parking Policy with the objectives of the Travel Plan.
‘Throughout this complex project, Ian from the Parking Consultancy has proved invaluable in terms of assessing the scope for the services required, writing a technical tender specification and playing a lead role in the evaluation of returned tender bids. Throughout the process Ian has provided the necessary knowledge, experience and skills to help ensure Bournemouth University appointed a supplier that best matched the quality and budget requirements of the project.
Without Ian’s input and assistance, this project would not have been delivered on time and on budget. I would certainly recommend the Parking Consultancy’s services to any organisation who has a car parking project that they need assistance with.’
Richard Wintrip
Contract Data
Duration: 3 years
Contact: Ian Goodwin and David White theparkingconsultancy@outlook.com
Tel: 01430650343
Mobile: 07410117113
Case Study