Security solutions for underground car park access

Modern apartment blocks have become an increasingly common sight in cities across the UK over the last 10-20 years. With space in big cities coming at a premium, many developments are choosing to build up, offering a more European style of living to home-owners and renters. Many of these are keen to avoid long commutes to work from the suburbs and so are choosing to opt for inner city living and the practical benefits that it offers them as opposed to traditional houses and bungalows.

As competition rises in this market, developers are feeling the pressure to provide a greater number of amenities to would-be tenants and buyers. Smart home appliances, CCTV and hi-speed fibre optic broadband are among some of the most sought-after features. However, also high on their list of most-wanted amenities is adequate car parking facilities, which has led to many apartments now being built with underground car parks.

Managing access to underground car parks

It is important in order to protect the vehicles of residents that access to car parks is effectively restricted to residents and staff, as well as allowing some form of access to delivery drivers and emergency services when needed.

While many developers’ first instinct will be to turn to CCTV as a way of dealing with these types of security issues, it’s by no means a fool-proof form of protection. Even the best security cameras can be beaten by a well-disguised criminal, or a criminal who has been able to calculate ‘blind spots’ where cameras can’t pick them up easily.

By employing stronger perimeter security measures such as gates fitted with access control equipment and also other measures like bollards you can properly safeguard both vehicles and the contents of those vehicles from theft and burglary. It also provides a chance to restrict access to approved visitors, therefore reducing the chances of other crimes like vandalism and even arson.

Not only do access controls and perimeter security methods provide help with protecting against crime but they can also act as a selling point for prospective residents, particularly those with high-value vehicles who are looking for strong and formidable security to protect their purchases.

Here at Gateway Automation we provide free feasibility surveys to assess your requirements and also provide non-obligation quotes. Click here to arrange a callback or click here to download our free brochure and take a look at our impressive range of access control equipment.

Lock down your offices with biometric security

Some types of businesses are naturally more attractive to criminals than others, and so for those companies, security options are always at the forefront of what they do. Of course, this varies from business to business, and a bank or a shopping centre will typically have very different protocols in place to a restaurant or an office-based business. Unfortunately, far too many business owners wrongly assume that their businesses are safe from crime right up until the time they are targeted. Here we will look at how office-based businesses in particular can safeguard their people, information and assets in the face of ever-rising crime rates.

One of the biggest threats to office-based businesses is that of theft. In a recent survey as many as two-thirds of employees admitted to stealing low-cost items like stationary from their employers and a high number went even further than that, admitting to stealing electronic items and expensive materials. An obvious but largely underused way to combat this type of employee theft is to lock down specific areas such as stock cupboards or equipment storage areas with access control equipment. This means only trusted parties can access those materials.

While a degree of theft can come from your own employees acting poorly, theft can also come from outside your own building. Opportunistic thefts or planned attacks can take place should your building appear to be an easy target or the goods inside of high enough value to take a risk. Access control equipment like biometric entry controls, turnstiles and gates can effectively lock down your offices against these types of risks.

Another threat that businesses face in the modern world is that of data security. Physical hard-copy materials that contain sensitive information such as financial data or personal details can prove very valuable to criminals. In fact, this type of crime costs the UK as much as £3.3 billion year on year.

Businesses that fail to take strong steps to protect the information of their clients and customers can face damaging consequences. Should data be wrongly procured they can face fines of up to £500,000 from the Information Commissioners Office. As well as having strong data security protocols in place, businesses should ensure that confidential materials are securely stored, and once again only trusted parties should be given access.

Are you interested in finding out more? Gateway Automation provide a range of perimeter security systems to help businesses and individuals to secure their sites and also provides nationwide servicing and repairs to gates, barriers and other perimeter security equipment. To find out more, please contact us on 01522 68255 or take a look at our brochure which can be viewed here: http://www.gatewayautomation.co.uk/brochure/.