Anglian Water Triples Parking Revenues with WPS’ Pay-On-Foot Parking System

Anglian Water’s Alton, Rutland and Grafham Water Parks offer a range of activities in, on and around their waters, and are popular destinations for holidaymakers and campers, most of whom come by road. As such Alton and Grafham has parking for approximately 1,000 cars, and Rutland 3,000.

The Challenge

William Kirstein, Park Manager, says the car parks are important since they are the first and last
touchpoint in a visitor’s experience: “It was essential in selecting a partner that the system was easy to understand and use and added to the customer experience. It needed to be able to accommodate multiple payment methods and enable fast access to and from the site.”

Prior to the ParkAdvance™ installation, all three Anglian Water sites utilized a pay and display parking system, which William says was hard to police resulting in lost revenues: “Policing vehicles
that don’t display a valid ticket is an onerous task, and not in line with the service we want to offer
our customers. But we have to generate revenues from somewhere, and if visitors come to enjoy the well-maintained countryside, and want clean toilets, emptied bins, salted pathways in winter,
and so on then this comes at a cost.”

Solutions and Benefits

WPS, one of the UK’s leading parking equipment providers, has installed a sophisticated pay-on-foot parking system at Anglian Water’s Alton, Grafham and Rutland Water Parks, designed to support the revenues required for ongoing site investment and maintenance, and deliver a seamless experience for visitors. The most recent Alton Water solution includes high-speed entry and exit barriers, supported by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and three ParkAdvance™ pay stations providing cash, card, contactless, Apple and Google Pay payment options.

WPS’ ParkAdvance™ pay-on-foot system has also been successfully rolled out at Anglian Water’s
Grafham and Rutland attractions which have three car parks each, served by a total of 16 pay
stations. All parking systems sit on a cloud-hosted platform and can be controlled centrally.

“Previously, we estimated that at least 30% of our customers avoided paying for parking, but this could have been much higher,” says William. “What we do know is that since the WPS ParkAdvance™ technology was installed, revenues have doubled at Grafham and Rutland, and trebled at Alton, which is fantastic news for the sites as we can now invest in ensuring they offer clean, safe and ultimately fun environments,” he says. “While there is occasionally some push back from customers, by and large people expect to pay for parking nowadays, and we find customers are far less likely to complain about paying for parking when the experience is good.”

The ParkAdvance™ IP-based operating architecture is highly configurable and flexible to an individual site’s needs. At Anglian Water’s car parks, it enables management to set varied tiered payment structures, to offer season tickets, annual passes and free employee parking using ID cards or ANPR technology to automatically grant access.

William says WPS provided high levels of service from the outset: “Minimising the downtime of our
systems is extremely important for us and WPS was proven in its support and service offering.
Unlike many of its competitors, they offer a seven-day-a-week support package, which is essential in the leisure industry where our busiest periods are weekends and summer holidays. It can also be scaled back during off-peak quieter periods.”

Simon Jarvis, Managing Director of WPS in the UK, says Anglian Water is an excellent example of
how the leisure industry can ensure parking systems work in support of their businesses: “Instead of being a drain on personnel and financial resources, a well-designed parking system can essentially manage itself and bring in much-needed revenue.”

About WPS

WPS focus on practical innovation and bring together technology to provide our customers with smart but primarily reliable and future proof Parking Solutions, ready to face the connected world of today and tomorrow.WPS want to be recognized as a leading provider of reliable parking management solutions with focus on “practical innovation” and become a top-3 player in all the markets we operate in.