The London Borough of Bromley is installing a new automated enforcement system to increase road safety outside five schools that have been experiencing high levels of inconsiderate behavior from parents parking on the yellow ‘keep clear’ zones when dropping off or collecting their children.
The contract has been awarded to OpenView Security Solutions, a leading provider of CCTV systems to local authorities, under the ELS framework agreement, which is available to all London boroughs. OpenView has chosen to use the latest automated system from Videalert, with the company’s unattended CCTV enforcement systems also being deployed at all bus lane locations in the borough to upgrade the existing manually operated systems. The decision to install the Videalert system was made after a successful pilot scheme that started in 2013, but was delayed until the government formalized the exemptions in the recent Deregulation Act.
The system combines automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) with video analytics to deliver the highest productivity at the lowest operational cost. Using a single PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) camera, it continuously monitors the keep clear zones and automatically captures only the drivers that are stationary in defined ‘watch areas’ and exceed the ‘watch times’. Evidence packs are automatically created for review by a qualified operator, before sending them to back office PCN (penalty charge notice) processing systems.
The Videalert CCTV enforcement system is also being installed to automate the enforcement of bus lanes across the borough. The intelligent system automatically captures only the number plates of vehicles that actually commit offences. It delivers higher levels of productivity at a lower cost than the existing legacy systems that rely on operators to manually monitor each camera location to identify contraventions and construct evidence packs. The platform provides the Bromley with built-in future-proofing. It supports multiple civil traffic enforcement, traffic management, community safety, and crime prevention applications simultaneously. It is fully ONVIF certified, compatible with existing analogue cameras, and allows a progressive migration to digital camera environments.
“The Videalert solution helps to solve a growing issue at the school gates, where inconsiderate parking by parents is putting children at risk,” explained Allen Herve, contracts and operations manager for parking at the Borough of Bromley. “It provides a real deterrent for inconsiderate drivers where other traditional forms of enforcement have proved to be less than effective, along with providing best value for the authority. Moving to automated, unattended CCTV enforcement systems will provide best value for the authority and enable us to extend the hours of operations without additional associated costs. It will also enable us to redeploy staff to deliver an enhanced level of service provision and achieve significant cost savings.”
Tim Daniels, sales and marketing director of Videalert, commented, “We are pleased to be working with OpenView on this important contract. Our platform allows local authorities to seamlessly upgrade from manually operated systems using the same infrastructure, while reducing manpower and equipment costs. It provides more effective compliance and ensures best value for local tax payers over the lifetime of the contract.”
