Parksafe Systems

You come home from a trip abroad. You walk to your car in the multistorey airport car park. You don’t see it at  first, though you spot a similar car with smashed windscreen and the dashboard all ripped about. Then it dawns on you. That is your car! You rush to the attendant’s office. You say: ‘My car’s been vandalised while I was away.’ The attendant looks at you, a bored expression on his face. ‘See that sign mate?’ he says, indicating, with a slight raising of his eyebrows, a sign over your shoulder: ‘It says: ‘All vehicles left here at their owner’s risk.’’ End of conversation.

You’ve been out in town for a drink with some mates. You’re walking back through a dark car park alone. Strange people are about. You hurry. When you approach your car you see it is surrounded by a gang of youths. Empty tins of lager are lying crushed on the concrete floor. There’s a banging noise. Then, as you get closer, you see what’s happening. They are kicking your car. You stop. ‘This your car?’ they ask, as they continue to kick the door panels. End of conversation.

These incidents happen in car parks around the UK every day. In fact the first incident above happened to Ken Wigley, around 12 years ago. He was so furious with the attendant’s ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude, that he decided to do something about it – something dramatic and constructive.

He invented Parksafe.

Ken Wigley is now chairman of Parksafe Systems Ltd: ‘I’m an agricultural engineer. I had recently developed a sensor system for a forage harvester, a metal movement detector. If it spotted a horseshoe or even a beer can, it would automatically shut the machine down before the metal wrecked it.

‘Parking is pretty boring stuff, but the more you get into it, the more intriguing it becomes. I was thinking: ‘How could the attendant have prevented what happened to my car? If he couldn’t see or hear it happening, then how could he know?’ So I thought: invent a sensor that can do his job for him. One that can tell if the car is being moved by people who shouldn’t be moving it. And so I did.’

Not only did Ken invent a sensor, he designed a whole secure car park system. ‘What happens if you drive into a Parksafe car park, say the 24-hour multistorey on Bold Lane, near the shopping centre in Derby? It’s got 440 parking bays, covering ten floors. It’s designed for short stay shoppers as well as people who want to park overnight. You pick up your ticket as per normal, and then find a free parking bay. The bay has a big number on it. On your way out, you pass the Bay Controller machine. You put your ticket through it, and it activates the sensor under your car. This is a device that keeps an eye on the undersurface of the car and detects any movement above a preset level. If someone is kicking the car, or trying to break into it, the alarm goes off. When you come back to the car park, you put your ticket in the Pay on Foot machine, and the sensor is switched off.

‘The CCTV system is comprehensive, and so is the PA. If we see a bunch of lads drive in we know to watch for them later. Sometimes they come back a bit drunk. We watch them, say, go up to level five, where they think no-one’s watching them and then they might start larking about. Play fighting. The sort of behaviour that’s fine by itself but can make them all a bit leery. If it looks like getting out of hand, we bollock them! We say, over our very loud PA: ‘OK boys, settle down, get in your car, and LEAVE.’ And the amazing thing is, they always do.’

With panic buttons set at every five metres, 190 CCTV cameras in a typical installation, car exits controlled by attractively designed doors to prevent casual pedestrian access, automatic control of exits to prevent escape by criminals, reduced entrances and exits, all monitored, suddenly the car park is becoming one of the safest places in town.

‘We used to have a problem of people urinating in the stairwells. Of drug abuse in all the dark corners. Of tramps and prostitutes. The year before we moved in to the Derby car park, there were 171 reported crimes in the car park. And the police told me that for every crime reported, there were on average three that hadn’t been. The car park was being used less and less. The council had redecorated it, installed 16 CCTV cameras and employed a patrolling officer. This reduced crime a little for about six months, but it soon came back.

‘Now, in four years of operation there hasn’t been a single incident. No crime at all! No graffiti, no theft, no  breakage. Nothing. We’re getting 400 cars a night on the weekends. Which is pretty amazing really, because you have to pay to come in here. People are prepared to pay for security. All the surrounding parks, most closer to the city centre than us, are free.

‘We offer the car user a guarantee. If their car gets damaged here, we’ll pay for it. Though I do actually video scan the cars on the way in to make sure I’m not going to be caught with a fraudulent claim! Now more and more middleaged and elderly couples use the car park at night – and women on their own. Because they feel safe. Usage was 10% up on last year. That’s unknown in this business – especially with no new stores opening up around us.

‘It was hard to get this project off the ground. I did most of it off my own bat. I put a lot of money into it to develop the system, and built it up on paper over a couple of years. I thought: ‘This will be easy to market.’ I seriously didn’t think I’d have a problem, I was so convinced it would be such a good idea. So once I’d created the design and prototype sensor, I took it round various bodies and businesses. All for nothing. Until I came full circle back to Derby where someone in the city council had the balls to say: ‘Let’s try it!’ Then we were able to get private investors and banks to raise half a million. It’s a long-term project. There’s no real return yet. It’ll be ten years before we see any serious profit, but it’s definitely going to be worth it in the long run. We’ve got a new one
opening in Lancaster in October 2001.’

There are a few people who are critical of Parksafe, saying that it is ‘over the top’, yet crime has been reduced to zero and feedback from customers is extremely positive. Indeed, an independent survey showed that 97% felt safe in the car park and 100% that their vehicle and its contents were secure. Nearly everyone that parked there felt that paying an extra 20p per hour was worth it and/or good value for money. Ken also plans to sell the detector system to private owners who park their cars in driveways. That’s nearly 14 million potential new customers.