Exploding parking meters - Success in Sussex

[28th April 2008]

Following a campaign Sussex Crimestoppers worked on to tackle exploding car parking meters, incidents of the crime have dropped.

Alpha Parking's consultant Tara Gabriel has been advising East Sussex County Council on its civil parking enforcement over the past three years. "While residents have welcomed the Lewes scheme, which addresses over-demand for scarce on-street parking spaces, not everyone who visits the town was equally delighted," she says.

Hence, the council has recently introduced to its county town a new generation of parking meters which can withstand attack from fireworks, commercial explosives and home-made explosive devices. One hundred Alfia SI pay-and-display machines, modestly described as 'vandal resistant', have replaced the models destroyed by criminals.

With its reputation for spectacular bonfire nights - the town boasts six bonfire societies - Lewes is no stranger to over-exuberant use of explosives. "Among other celebrities, effigies of parking attendants and parking machines are paraded through the streets before being burned at the vatious bonfire parties," explains Roger Woodward, head of parking operations.

"To protect machines on that day, we were removing around half the pay-and-display machines on the processional routes and fitting protective steel jackets to the rest. But explosive attacks on machines began to occur not only during the bonfire period but also throughout the year," he adds.

Apart from the damage to equipment, worth around £300,000, there were also concerns about the possibility of injury to passers-by. When the attacks reached serious proportions, the council worked closely with Alfia and Sussex Crimestoppers to track down the offenders and prevent further damage.

Inevitably, vandals have seen the new machines as a challenge, but Alfia has responded with further improvements to the machines, such as redesigning the coin return chute to make it more resistent to explosives.

While the design of the new machines takes away the satisfaction of a big explosion for attackers, one of the most effective parts of the campaign was a series of Crimestoppers beer mats. These were distributed to all local pubs offering a £5,000 reward for giving information about culprits that led to their arrest.

"So perpetrators can't even risk bragging about their actions down the pub, which deters the more casual attacks on our parking meters," adds Paul Crawford, parking manager for Lewes district."Sussex Crimestoppers say it is their most successful campaign to date."

As the following table shows, attacks have bow almost ceased: