A NORTH-East man has been crowned king of the nation's car parks.

Newcastle's parking and business services manager Neil Cuthbert has been named Parking Manager of the Year at the British Parking Awards 2003, presented by Parking Review magazine.

Mr Cuthbert has turned around Newcastle's parking service in less than three years. When he took up the post in September 2000, the city's car parks were judged by Government inspectors to be under-performing.

In the two years between 2000 and 2002, he halved the backlog of uncollected parking fines, from £1.692m to £754,000.

At the same time, the average occupancy of car parks has increased from 49 per cent to 68pc and the council has won 15 secured car park awards.

Mr Cuthbert said: "When I took over the section in 2000, things were looking difficult in the wake of the Best Value Review that year.

"The section responded to the inspectors' comments magnificently though and their performance over the succeeding years has been outstanding.

"I'm very proud to have won this award from the trade's leading magazine and I know everyone working here is delighted too. They should be, it reflects on the excellence of their work."