Croydon Council’s Smart City programme, announced today, has been put together by UK Partnerships Ltd who are the UK partner of New York City based VALO Smart City.

The scheme which involves using state of the art bus shelters and free standing units provides not just high tech information for passengers but an array of technology to connect the London Borough with wi-fi, 5G, air quality monitoring, traffic monitoring and other smart city uses. Transforming the outdoor advertising sector, UKPL, who wrote and won the tender in Croydon on behalf of VALO Smart City, Croydon’s innovative scheme introduces digital advertising to replace paper posters and provides upwards of £6million of revenues to the hard pressed Council.

Clare Starbuck, UKPL Business Manager said: “The scheme in Croydon transforms the outdoor advertising sector by using digital advertisements and using the bus shelters as a physical platform for smart technology. Our business model takes a huge burden off the taxpayer and provides modern bus shelters and smart technology such as free wi-fi for the public, air quality monitoring and traffic sensoring. In the future, it will provide a platform for the Internet of Things with huge benefits for service delivery”.

UK Partnerships Ltd (www.ukpartnerships.org) is based in Lancashire, London and Tel Aviv. The company brings innovative technologies into the UK public sector and focuses on Smart City transformation. It is run by former Local Government Minister, Phil Woolas and Investment Bankers, Ian Gamse and Robin Henshall.

VALO Smart City US CEO, Isaac “Ike” Sutton, a global leader of the smart city revolution says he is thrilled to work with UKPL: “From a standing start in early 2020 and despite the lockdown, UKPL and VALO have worked together to transform the UK smart city sector. We are very proud of our technology which will benefit the public of Croydon and hopefully be adopted across the UK”

VALO Smart City Corporation is a “smart city integrator” that transforms cities’ assets into a cost- effective modular platform for IoT (Internet of Things) services. The Company contracts through Public Private Partnerships with cities, boroughs and local authorities around the world to replace ageing street furniture providing Smart City as a Service – this means providing new connected infrastructure and maintaining them at no cost to the cities and their citizens.

The VALO platform has endless possibilities and can be installed in bus shelters, benches, bicycle docking stations, EV charging, smart rubbish bins and street lighting. VALO then installs state of the art connectivity and applications and sensors – again at no cost – which allows the cities to monitor traffic flow and air quality and generate additional revenues (through advertising) by providing services to the general public, like free Wi-Fi.