70 per cent of councils provide good online parking services

A Socitm survey has released findings indicating 70 per cent of councils provide a ‘good’ or ‘very good’ parking service online. 

The survey is the first of Socitm’s new Better Connected surveys and shows that the majority of councils tested handle the task of ‘pay parking fine’ well, with almost 70 per cent achieving three or four stars on a scale of one to four. 

The findings are similar to the 72 per cent that achieved the Better Connected ‘standard’ when the task was last tested in 2013. 

It must also be noted that the task is more difficult this year, due to an ‘essential question’ which must be answered correctly before a service can achieve three or four stars. The survey also marks down any services that offer information which is clearly not up to date. 

Socitm maintained the councils which scored lower marks tended to be weak in just one or two areas. These included, failing to match terminology on the physical parking ticket with that on the payment form, or making it difficult to navigate to information about discounts and appeals. 

Martin Ferguson, Socitm’s director of policy and research, praised the overall positive result of the survey. He said: “The service provided by the best performers is really excellent. By making Better Connected results and commentary more accessible through our new publishing platform we are enabling the sharing of digital expertise that is so vital for the sector.”