B&Q can do it!

Since the company moved to Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, in 1987, staff levels have risen threefold to 1550 people located at three sites. At the largest of these, Portswood House, only 420 staff car park spaces are available.

This was causing severe problems with vehicle congestion. Double parking and access blocking were rife, creating additional health and safety issues with the emergency services. Management and staff were unhappy with the inconvenience and frustration.

A park and ride scheme from an offsite car park had proved to be inflexible and difficult to administer. The different arrival/departure times of full time, part time and shift workers, and those in car sharing schemes, added to the burden.

A further expansion of the offices also meant more than 200 of the existing spaces had to be sacrificed, creating even more gridlock.

A long-term solution remained elusive until Facilities Manager John Roberts saw a demonstration of Automatic Number Plate Recognition at the Facilities Management Exhibition in London and realised it could be the answer to the problem. With ANPR, employees are guaranteed a space in the car parks on the days that they are eligible.

Many options for management
The CCTV-based computer operating system allows access control by identifying, logging and monitoring vehicle number plates. When used on the entry and exit barriers it can provide many options for vehicle management. It will allow only authorised vehicles to enter, keep track of the number of spaces available and permanently deny access to all unrecognised vehicles. It can also be programmed to provide operational flexibility on a day-by-day basis.

Fast-track installation
Roberts selected the ANPR Company, part of Pathfinder Systems, to design and install the system. A travel plan manager and assistant were also appointed to encourage as many B&Q employees as possible to abandon single occupancy work journeys and organising car sharing or other alternatives.

He said: "The ANPR Company designed a system to meet all or our operating criteria, including customised 'Jambusters' software that allows the input of day-to-day running of data and rota arrangements.

There was a very tight, fast track timescale allowed for the installation. Disruption to normal site operations had to be minimal while civil works associated with the installation of new barriers, traffic lights, information boards and the control room were carried out.

"Pathfinder pulled out all the stops to achieve completion in just over a month … we have been delighted with the effort made," said Roberts.

Parking transformed
The introduction of ANPR transformed the efficiency and appearance of the car parking area. Double parking and access blocking are now a thing of the past and visitor parking is no longer a problem.

It has also enabled the park and ride scheme to be run with increased efficiency, and even enabled a portion of the car parking area to be converted to secure, covered shelters for bicycles and motorcycles.

Plans are now in hand to expand the scheme to the other car parks and a new one that will be introd-uced next year when a new office block is completed – all linked to the existing central control room.

The system will eventually provide access control at car sharing car parks at three different locations.

Dirty plates recognised
The recognition technique employed is a neural network approach, which offers greater system potential. In addition to the number plate, an overview image can be taken providing a detailed record of the vehicle's make and colour. The neural network based techniques are able to recognise poorly defined, distorted and dirty characters.

Plates are read and checked against the database and, provided the vehicle is authorised for that time/day, traffic lights allow access, while two-way, hands free communication is also provided for other instructions. A number of checks are made before the decision is made to open the barrier. These include car pool, rota, other vehicles in car park, and spaces available etc.

Using the same process on exit, the plate log, plate patch and associated image are stored for future reference and archiving.

A message sign at the entrance shows the number of available spaces and messages denying access, for example, wrong day, wrong vehicle or wrong time of day/night.

Giving virtual 24 hour operation, monochrome infra-red cameras mounted in steel columns are set so the plates are between 25 to 35 per cent of the field of view.

The Plate Recognition Unit is a PC based device housed in a 19 inch rack mount chassis within the control room. It can process the output from a number of ANPR cameras.

Due to the planned expansion of the system and the multiple user groups being operated a separate server was proposed to enable future expansion of the system to many more B&Q car parks nationally.