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The HillingdonFirst Card scheme goes
live this week and is the biggest Citizen Card scheme in
England. All residents over the age of 18 in the
London Borough of Hillingdon are entitled to receive a
personalised smart card which will replace their existing
library cards and give residents privileges, such as
discounts in over 330 local retailers, preferential parking
tariffs and free access to council waste facilities (for
which non-residents have to pay).
With approximately 150,000
smartcards being mailed in the first week, some of the key
suppliers were invited to Burall InfoSmart Ltd in Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire, who have produced the smart cards and
prepared the mailing, to witness the size of the operation
for themselves. Pictured here, from left to right are:
Michael Catchick of Metric Parking (Operators of Street
parking in Hillingdon), Kevin Farquharson of Smartran Ltd
(Scheme Consultants to Hillingdon), Darryl Wallace,
HillingdonFirst project manager for the London Borough of
Hillingdon, Owen McLaughlin of SmartCitizen Ltd (providers
of the Card Management database) and Lawrence Faulkner,
Director of Burall InfoSmart Ltd.
Darryl Wallace addressed the
visitors and staff from Burall InfoSmart and gave some
background to the project: “The features of HillingdonFirst
arose from a survey of residents of the borough, from which
it was clear that people like the idea of a resident’s
privilege card.”
He added that three focus groups had
decided that it should be a “gold card” for residents and
hence the distinctive design of the card was created.
Wallace also pointed out that, “No other borough has tried
to send out cards to everybody”, recognising that similar
schemes only involve limited numbers of residents.
By using council tax lists and
library card membership, the council has been able to
identify approximately 77% of residents without using the
Electoral Register, which would have been even more accurate
but which cannot be used out of respect for the data privacy
of its residents. Those who have not been included in the
original mailing can still request a card from the council.
Wallace concluded his address with a big “Thank you for all
your effort”.
Further information
about the HillingdonFirst scheme may be found
here.
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HillindonFirst is the biggest Citizen
Card Rollout in England this year
Approximately
150,000 smartcards are being mailed this week alone |
