WORCESTER City Council have been awarded for how well they communicate with drivers in the city's car parks.

Executives from the organisation PATROL, which provides an independent tribunal to consider appeals over parking tickets, visited Worcester on Monday to present the council with first place in its 2014 Annual Parking Reports Award.

As well as operating Traffic Penalty Tribunals, PATROL has also made a commitment to improving public information on civil parking enforcement.

In 2013 PATROL’s Head of Service, Louise Hutchinson, gave evidence to the Government’s Transport Committee enquiry into Local Authority Parking Enforcement, where she championed the Joint Committee’s Annual Report Award, which promotes best practice in council reporting.

The Joint Committee has established an independent review group to consider annual reports, and were unanimous in selecting Worcester City Council as the winning report for 2012/13.

ndy Chinn, parking and enforcement services manager at Worcester City Council, said: "Our annual parking report isn’t just a set of facts and figures, we have made every effort to clearly set out all the services we offer, along with open and transparent analysis of our performance.

"We are delighted that our efforts to engage with the public have been recognised."

Chair of the review group, Peter Bayless, a retired traffic engineer, added: "Worcester’s report was presented in a clear way with good use of photographs and tables, and took the opportunity to combine detailed background information on parking policy and local arrangements with practical information to assist drivers."