APT SKIDATA makes concrete start to Bedford Borough Council car park contract

Bedford Borough Council is currently undertaking a programme of regeneration for all of its car park sites and Lurke Street is the first of three planned to be refurbished. The multi-storey car park, which has 830 spaces, is centrally located and ideally situated for shoppers and town centre office workers. However, lack of investment has seen the car park suffer, attracting anti-social behaviour, which deterred drivers from using it.

Councillor Ian Clifton, the responsible Portfolio Holder at Bedford Borough Council during its refurbishment said: "In a thriving town centre like Bedford parking spaces are inevitably in demand but it became increasingly evident that drivers were reluctant to use our Lurke Street site. It was imperative that the Council provided a better parking environment and this was achieved through our innovative refurbishment and APT SKIDATA's considerable parking expertise."

APT SKIDATA won the order through a strong recommendation by Makers UK, the building and structural company handling the refurbishment. The technology has now been installed, structural repairs have been made and concrete degradation has been treated.

The old pay and display system has been replaced by three of APT SKIDATA’s pay-on-foot machines conveniently located for all users, and featuring sophisticated graphic interfaces with an integrated on-line help facility allowing all payments and sales transactions to be processed with superior speed and efficiency.

Parking column and barriers are installed at the car park’s entrance and two exits points. Each component of the revenue collection system is designed and manufactured from high-grade steel, cast aluminium and polycarbonate.

Completing the APT 450 range is the main administrative unit and control centre that comprises a combined management computer/cashier with a ticket reader/coder and an intercom communication facility to all entrances, exits, pay stations and help points. The PC-based APT 450 range uses industry standard software (Windows NT and SQL database) and is flexible in design, user friendly and reliable.

Commenting on the completion of installation the Dermot Murphy, Managing Director of APT SKIDATA said: “It has been rewarding working with Bedford Borough Council and to play such a crucial role in the redevelopment of one of the town’s vital parking facilities. Our technology now offers the car park operators a seamless and efficient system, which in turn provides ease of parking to town centre visitors.”