Canterbury Park and Ride (1 Viewer)

[Mavis]

Right I have phoned --any problems phone 01227 862 000
They have allowed cars to park but there will be spaces for M/Homes.
If any problem stay outside on the big block paving thats on the right as you go in (where the School Buses park) and tell the office that Colin said it was OK and wait for a space. It will still be ok overnight as the cars will all be gone.
They are opened for Sunday between 9am -6pm up until 23d December

You can get to the Service point I did check that yesterday as I went to use the P&R in my car and was amazed at cars in there and panicked as Im meeting friends for the night thursday so there will be 4 M/H's in my group.:thumb:

 

[scousebird]

We were there Sat/Sun 24/25th November and there were 4 or 5 MHs parked there overnight.

 

[ourcampersbeentrashed]

So any plans for a mini meet before xmas?????

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[scousebird]

Would love to but haven't got a spare minute now before Christmas

 

[Mavis]

Had a great stay at the P&R thursday last week with friends. We phoned ahead and they put cones out and saved places but it wasnt being used by cars anyway.
There is a point for Electric cars to charge up free of charge so wondered if Disabled Scooters could be charged with that !!
We traveled into town and had a curry and the buses were running until 8.30 as it was late night.
Friday we went on one bus to town and then caught the other one to Wincheap and shopped in Argos all on the same ticket. We didnt leave until 5pm so it meant paying for 2 days £2.50 per day =£5.00 so well worth it.
The prices are going up to £3.00 in jan but you cant complain at that either.
1 ticket covers up to 6 people on the bus anyway.:thumb:
Have to say Im really proud of my Council for the facility and for thinking ahead in this way and should be used as a model by all Councils

 

[GJH]

It would be nice if the Canterbury scheme could be used as a model by all councils. Unfortunately other councils don't have the advantage that Canterbury has of being on the route for Channel traffic to provide an economic argument.

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[Mavis]

It would be nice if the Canterbury scheme could be used as a model by all councils. Unfortunately other councils don't have the advantage that Canterbury has of being on the route for Channel traffic to provide an economic argument.

I agree but isnt that shortsighted of other Councils as we spend locally in the High Streets.
There is never any noise from the M/H's and everyone leaves it clean and tidy.
How can we get through to the rest of the Country that it is a great idea. :thumb:

 

[GJH]

I agree but isnt that shortsighted of other Councils as we spend locally in the High Streets.
There is never any noise from the M/H's and everyone leaves it clean and tidy.
How can we get through to the rest of the Country that it is a great idea. :thumb:

I've put forward the economic argument myself but since then I've seen quite a number of posts saying that many people stock up at home so do not spend at their destination.

Most towns in this country do not have Park & Ride schemes so they don't have the ready-made areas to use. Even where they do there are often caravan sites/CLs/CSs nearby. The majority of car parks are designed for sustained use by vehicles lighter than 2 tonnes.

How do we get it through to the rest of the country? Broken Link Removed is probably the way to go.

 

[Mavis]

I have just sent them a email and thanked Colin as he saved us spaces but as it was there was no probs with parking.

Here is the postcode if you should need it New Dover Road CT1 3EJ

They also Charge electric cars and wondered if scooters could be charged over night --might be worth checking if your disabled :thumb: http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/parkandride

Shame we couldn't plug the M/H in that would be too cheeky

Do you own an Electric car ? If so, good news from Park & Ride.

From Tuesday 14th August 2012 each Park & Ride site will have an EV charging post which will be free to use for Park & Ride customers. All you need to do is apply online for a card and answer a few simple questions. When you get your card just present it to the card reader on the post and follow the instructions. There is a green plug flap which will open so all you do is plug in, hop on Park & Ride to the City and when you return your car will be charged, so just unplug, close the flap and drive away. These are our first EV installations and we're using Park & Ride to see if there is a demand for City Centre and Coastal installations. For more information and further bulletins, please make sure you read this page regularly.

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[Mavis]

Well I have had a email back so please think about what you would like although I think what they provide is just brill.:thumb:

My emails was Dear Colin
Thank you for all your help last week as I had invited friends to come to Canterbury and we used the P&R as a meeting point in our Motorhomes
We were then able to go to Faversham to a Caravan and Camping Rally at the School for a Xmas party together.
I took the other 2 couples into Canterbury on the Thursday for Curry night at Weatherspoons and again on the Friday and they did all their Christmas Shopping here in Canterbury. As they loved the Quirky shops (there name not mine)
They cant get over the facilities at the P&R and enjoyed every minute of their stay.
I have been advertising and talked about how proud I am of the P&R and My Council on forums - Motohome fun and have met so many of my friends there as they travel to and from France for some years now.
It is so shortsighted of other Councils not to provide the same facilities through the country as we spend locally in the High Streets.
There is never any noise from the M/H's and everyone leaves it clean and tidy. (just hate the way some people use the hose washing their toilet out with the drinking water but we do wipe the hose with wet wipes and a friend tied a piece of rope on the elson grid to be able to lift it better.)
How can we get through to the rest of the Country that it is a great idea ???
Thank you so much
Kindest Regards Mavis Nye

Colins reply --

Good morning and what a nice e-mail to receive when it’s cold and horrible outside this morning.
I’m so glad that you had such a good time and thank you very much for your kind words.

Plans to expand the facility are advancing and we should be ready to start next August (we have to wait for a winter wheat crop to be harvested so the Summer has to wait!)
I’m keen that we don’t lose the personality of the site so we’ll be looking closely at what we can do.
For example, thanks to comments received I’ll make sure there’s another drinking water tap provided but away from the drop grate.
If you, or perhaps any friends (or forum members), would like to submit suggestions for what other facilities they would like then I’d be very grateful. I’d just like to remind everyone that we are a Council (so have limited funds) and it is a Park & Ride site (so no long term provision requests like shops please).

Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy and safe New Year.

Kind regards
Colin


Colin Perris MIPP
Senior Transportation Strategy Officer
Canterbury City Council
Military Road
Canterbury, Kent
CT1 1YW
Tel:01227 862430
colin.perris@canterbury.gov.uk
website: www.canterbury.gov.uk


My Reply is
Hi Colin I will put this on the forum but really all we need is a tap and a handle on the grating and make it a lid so that people have to lift it to use it instead of chucking it through a grill.
We have often washed Loo paper and worse after someone has used it. Other than that dont make it complicated for yourself or expensive as what you provide now is wonderful.
Love Mavis

 

[Mavis]

Yes a modified copy of that letter should be sent to every Council where a P&R does exist where it wouldnt be hard to create a overnight stay and we then have the use of the P&R bus.
We have campsites here and it doesnt stop their trade of people that want to stay longer.
But I know we have an advantage of the traffic for the Ferries and the Train.

 

[Mavis]

Thanks to all those emailing Colin he will love the back up :thumb:

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[Mavis]

As not many points were raised here but MHFacts did a good job :thumb: raising points I invited Colin to view them but thought you would like to see his Email---

Good morning Mavis and thank you so much for all the great responses, useful information and constructive criticism. What an enlightened, responsible and thoughtful forum!
Perhaps you might like to post this for me?
I’ve copied this e-mail to my Portfolio Holder who is the Councillor responsible for Park & Ride and works hard to support us and protect our investment to provide these services.
The Motorhome area is transient which means it’s not local voters who benefit and this is the stumbling block for many authorities. What Peter understands and what your members have expressed is that they contribute greatly to our local economy and spread the word far better and over a much wider area than we could ever do.

I’ll try to answer as many points from your members as I can.
Firstly, Sundays. It was a shame when we stopped the Sunday service but it wasn’t profitable and as we carry up to 1.2 million passengers each year it wasn’t fair to raise the price to subsidise a very few customers, especially when there is extra free parking around the City on Sundays and the car parks are a lot quieter.
I don’t open the site to cars on Sundays because it’s quite a long way to walk from the City but the biggest reason is the dreaded VAT man. I have to run a bus service with the parking element. That way it’s a “composite” service and is excluded from VAT and the main reason we can keep it so cheap. If I used it as a car park, VAT is payable on the whole service (not just the Sunday element) and the price would go up for everyone immediately.

On that note I have to regretfully announce a price rise from April from £2.50 to £3 but still it’s per vehicle not per person … and City Centre parking can be as much as £18 per day.
The reason for the increase is that we subsidised Park & Ride to the tune of about £250,000 last year (paid for from our City car park income). Even though we have a transport plan which allows for a subsidy, these day we have little or nothing in the kitty so a 50p rise will wipe out the subsidy for 2014 and help make improvements.
We haven’t raised the price of P&R for 4 years and now, surprisingly, it’s too cheap…honestly…we’re seeing many more single drivers rather than car sharing so some of the reason for Park & Ride is being lost. We can control the traffic flow in the City by using our parking charges and although this won’t affect your forum members too much it does have an impact on the City which Medieval Town Planners and even the Luftwaffe couldn’t have dreamed of.

We’ll look to put a lid on the toilet drop but when we tried this at another site in the City (now sadly a housing estate) the smell in hot weather was really rank and it was being left open.

I’ll certainly look at putting a freshwater tap away from the drain.

Your member was correct when he identified the field we’re expanding into. Winter wheat will be harvested by August next year and then we’ll start the civil engineering works. At the moment we plan to extend the motorhome area towards the terminus building and I’ve noted about the overhang of larger units so I’ll try to make sure there’s at least a planting area behind the bays.

We do get other authorities requesting details about the site and how we integrate it with Park & Ride.
I think we’re slowly breaking down the 60’s perception of Motorhomes and travellers and as long as I can show our politicians responses like those you have provided then I’m hopeful it won’t be too long before other follow the example.

You’ll note I don’t advertise it too much .. it’s because we did once and the queues were really counterproductive. I’ll be doing a little extra advertising when the expansion opens but I’d rather keep it to user groups and forums to spread the word as we reach the people it’s designed for rather than those it isn’t.

…and MIPP stands for Member of the Institute of Parking Professionals although I prefer your version!

I’m sorry for the length of this response but if I’ve missed anything then please let me know and I’ll do what I can to help.
In the meantime can I again thank everyone and wish all Park & Ride customers a very Merry Christmas and a safe, traffic jam free 2013.

Kind regards
Colin


Colin Perris MIPP
Senior Transportation Strategy Officer
Canterbury City Council
Military Road
Canterbury, Kent
CT1 1YW
Tel:01227 862430
colin.perris@canterbury.gov.uk
website: www.canterbury.gov.uk