Nosey Parker helps iPhone-touting Brits park for less

[UK] Finding a parking space in major cities across the UK can be a nightmare. Now a new iPhone app from Manchester-based digital agency Stardotstar hopes to make things a little easier.

Nosey Parker enables users of Apple’s smartphone in the UK to find the nearest car park to their current position and the cheapest too.

While there are already a few iPhone apps that help make finding a parking space easier – by providing real-time parking information for specific towns, for example – Stardotstar say their app is the first to provide a comprehensive database of UK specific car park locations and prices, covering around 13,400 UK car parks or just over 1.8 million spaces. The Nosey Parker app also gives information on car parks with parent and toddler spaces, disabled spaces and car parks that accept payment by credit card.

The data is provided by Ian Betts Ltd (Carparks4u.com), which the company has licensed exclusively in return for sharing revenue. Stardotstar’s Director Gareth Langley tells me that they’re pretty sure this gives them access to the largest and most up-to-date database in the UK, which suggests that it maybe difficult for others to easily replicate.

The app is launching today (iTunes link) with a price of 59p until 28th Feb when it will return to its normal price of £1.79.

Moving forward, Langley says that version 1.1 of the app will be submitted to the App Store next week and will hopefully be released a week or so later. It will be offered as a free upgrade, and will include:

  • Search: find car parks near where you’re going, not just where you are
  • Filter: only show car parks with parent and toddler spaces, disabled spaces, take credit card payment…
  • Directions (via Google Maps)

In the future, Stardotstar are looking into adding some real-time data so that in some instances it will be possible to not only locate a car park but also know if there is a space free.

One other feature that I suggested they should consider is the ability to locate Blue Badge spaces for disabled drivers. These car parking spaces are provided by the UK government across the country (and in other EU countries too) for use by those who are registered as disabled. The database already exists but would require the relevant governmental department opening up the data for public/commercial use. That’s not asking too much, surely.