Safety and security the Q-Park way
Q-Park’s policy is to provide a customer-oriented service, with a strong emphasis on safety, security and service. The company has a reputation for top quality customer care and an imaginative approach to interior car park design and finish. Innovative features, ultra-safe and secure facilities, outstanding aesthetics and functionality, and a very stylish parking environment are fundamental to every car park.
Security first
Q-Park’s particularly strong emphasis on security across all its car parks speaks for itself:
During 2004, there were just 13 thefts from around 2.4 million cars using its town centre car parks, and only 30 thefts from around 5.6 million cars using its hospital and university campus car parks.
Each of Q-Park’s 60 car parks is fully manned, apart from two smaller sites in Manchester, which are manned up to the last two hours of opening, after which a roving security vehicle patrols the car parks at irregular intervals.
Along with its high levels of security, Q-Park also offers an escort -to-car or pay station service for women at all sites to ensure that they feel completely safe at all times.
Q-Park’s raft of security measures include:
• Top grade CCTV systems tailored to each car park
• Special 24-hour lighting to ensure customers feel safe
• Clearly illuminated signage
• Emergency exit lighting
• Clean, spacious interiors with contemporary feel
• Protected pedestrian walkways
• Wide parking bays
• Control centre with CCTV monitoring and IT operations
• Glazed doors to stair and lift areas to maximise visibility, safety and security
• Highly visible glass fronted parking host lodges with a safe, friendly customer service area
Safety awards
Q-Park holds ParkMark™* Safer Parking Scheme accreditations for 55 of its car parks, and is the first UK parking operator to receive 9 European Standard Parking Awards (ESPA).
Q-Park has also achieved a RoSPA Health & Safety Award, which recognises its active attention to ensuring a consistently clean and safe environment at all sites.
National recognition
The company’s dedication to quality was recognised in a recent nation-wide car park survey carried out on behalf of AA Insurance, where two Q-Park car parks - Liver Street, Liverpool and Criterion Place, Leeds - featured in the top ten.
The report on Liver Street reads: “Adorned with steel Venetian blinds coupled with speedy external ramps, this car park is simply in a class of its own. My white-glove test would undoubtedly have impressed my mother-in-law — you could have eaten your dinner off the floor”.
The report on Criterion Place reads: “If there was such thing as posh totty from Leeds then this is it. For a multi storey car park she was covered from head to foot in stardust”.
What the press says*
Evening Times. 13thOctober 2003
Scotland’s first car park aimed at women drivers has opened in Glasgow. The Candleriggs facility has bright lights, secure entry and concierges who will escort women to their cars or pay-stations. Female customers said today that the extra lighting and white walled parking bays monitored by 24-hour CCTV had taken the worry out of late-night parking.
Ann McGilp, 34, said: "This feels safer than others in the city which are dark and dingy. I like parking here because it is well looked after."
Ghristina Gaughan, 44, said: "It is more open than before. I've always used this space but it's brighter now and not too tight."
Friends Maggie Currie, 52 and Mary Graham, 48, agreed that the car park is safe and the attendants friendly.
Strathclyde Police superintendent Michael Mullen is to present the Candleriggs team with a Secured Car Park Award. He said: "Car parks such as Candleriggs, which have focused on security and achieved SCPA status, have reduced car crime significantly."
Terry Cartey, SCPA regional development manager for Scotland, said: "We were impressed by Candleriggs. It's well designed, safe and customer-orientated.”
Daily Record. 16th October 2003
A SCOTTISH car park was voted the safest in Britain yesterday. Candleriggs multi-storey car park in Glasgow scooped the award after a £1.3million upgrade. The stairwells have new flooring and lighting, and the doors have been changed to glass to help see what is on the other side.
The Herald. 16th October 2003
A Glasgow city centre car park has officially been recognised as the safest in Britain. Candleriggs multi-storey in the Merchant City, which has had a £1.3m refurbishment aimed especially at making female motorists feel secure, was presented yesterday with the first European Standard Parking Award to be given to a UK car park. The award, administered by the British Parking Association on behalf of the European Parking Association, is only given to facilities that pass strict standards in security, safety, lighting and maintenance.
*Extracts from press cuttings. pdfs of the cuttings in full are available on request
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For further information on Q-Park or for photography, please contact Marketing on 0870 442 0104 or email marketing@-park.co.uk
www.q-park.co.uk
