Overview

This car park was accessed via a bank of lifts which went up into the shopping centre. It had accessible parking spaces on both levels of the car park and also had EV charging stations on level -2. Shopmobility was on level -1 where you could hire wheelchairs and scooters. The EV charging points were operated by Zest so in order to charge here you’d need to download and use the Zest app. There were signs on the wall next to the chargers which explained how to use the charger. It also seemed like the display on the charger itself would also provide some steps. Although it wasn’t clear how helpful or comprehensive these would be. There was one charging point to two spaces as it had two charger connector points on each station. All of the chargers here were Type 2 chargers and offered 22 kW AC fast charging. Overall, these chargers were placed in a way that meant I could get up to them really close, which isn't always the case! But they were mounted higher up. I think you'd need a fair amount of upper body strength and dexterity to use these independently. The size of the spaces could also cause problems if all the other spaces were filled.

Transport & Parking

These spaces were standard size spaces, they didn’t have the space you would find in an accessible parking space. You’d need to have your own charging cable to connect to the charger too as there weren’t any built into the chargers here. The car park also offered 43 accessible parking spaces and 73 parent and child parking spaces. There was a height limit of 2.2m (7ft 2in) for vehicles entering. Parking charges applied here and would be in addition to the cost of charging.

Access

When leaving the car park to use the lifts or the escalator you went through either one or two sets of automatic double doors depending on which side you came from. The doors opened automatically as you approached and they opened into the shopping centre. The signage around the car park to find the EV charging stations and the accessible parking spots was both clear and easy to see. The spaces themselves were also painted different colours, green for EV and blue for accessible parking. This also helped make it easier to spot these spaces. The flooring of the car park was very smooth concrete. It was quite shiny so I’m not sure if it would be at all slippy, especially in bad weather if cars were coming in with wet tyres. The chargers are mounted on the wall and there weren’t any barriers or obstacles stopping you from getting very close to them so it was easy for me to get right up to the charger and interact with it. However, they are mounted quite high so I was having to reach up to them. As the spaces are regular-sized spaces it would also be much more difficult to access the charger if the other spaces were filled. As the charging stations need you to have your own cable it would need a lot of upper body strength and dexterity. This is because there is a flap covering the connector so you’d need to lift the flap with one hand and then attach your cable with the other. If you’re in a seated position, like me, you’d also have the added problem of it being higher up, which would require even more effort.

Toilets

There are accessible toilets, including a Changing Places Toilet, inside the shopping centre. More details can be found in my reviews of the centre and the Changing Places Toilet.

Staff

Photos