New Parking arrangements at the pool from February 6th
From February 6th, we will be introducing a parking scheme for the car park at the pool, which will be installed by a company called Parking Eye. Similar parking schemes are already in place at other locations in the area including Washington Leisure Centre.
The reason for this change is we want to prioritise the use of our car park for our customers, rather than other members of the public using it to park their cars during the day who are not using the pool. During the evenings, when Swim City provide swimming lessons at the pool, the car park is often very full or at capacity.
How will this work for our customers?
Once the system goes live in February, customers who pay for their swims at reception or are coming for Swim City lessons will be able to park for up to four hours free of charge, as long as they enter their registration numbers into a terminal at reception when they arrive at the pool. Parking Eye will be installing a camera at the entrance to the car park, which takes a photo of the registration number of every car which enters the car park. The Parking Eye system will match the registration numbers entered by customers at reception to the photographs taken in the car park, to ensure no charge is made for their parking, as long as they leave the car park within four hours.
The car registration numbers of our customers with memberships will be set up permanently within the Parking Eye system, so they can park free of charge whenever they use the pool. It will not be necessary for members to enter their registration numbers each time they come to the pool, as the system will recognise their registration numbers on arrival.
How will this work for people who are not customers but still wish to park?
People who are not using the pool, but still wish to park there for a period of time, can do so if they pay for their parking on arrival. The parking charge will be £1 per hour for the first six hours and £10 for between 6 and 12 hours. Birtley Community Pool will receive 80% of the parking charges, which will be an additional source of income to help us cover our costs.
Payment methods
People who are not using the pool but wish to pay for parking at the pool can do so either by downloading the Evology app on their phone, accessing the Evology website direct, or by paying at the pool reception and entering their registration number on one of the terminals. Details of the Evology app and website will be on the parking signs which will be installed around the car park.
Parking fines
Once the system goes live on February 6th, a parking fine of £100 will be issued by Parking Eye to people who park at the pool in the following circumstances:
- Members of the public who are not customers of the pool and do not pay for their parking on arrival via the app, website or at pool reception
- Customers who do not enter their registration number into one of the terminals when arriving at the pool
- Customers who have entered their registration number on arrival at the pool but do not leave the car park within four hours
Individuals who trigger a parking fine will receive a letter from Parking Eye with details of when the parking offence occurred and instructions on how to pay the fine. The fine is reduced to £60 if it is paid within 14 days. If customers forget to enter their vehicle registration when they arrive, Birtley Community Pool will ask for a reduced parking fine of £20 to be issued by Parking Eye, which is just to recover the costs incurred by Parking Eye.
We will put up prominent signage in reception to remind customers and visitors to record their registration on arrival and our staff member on reception will also remind customers to do this.
Physical changes at the pool
Parking Eye will install a camera at the entrance to the car park along with a “Pay on Arrival” sign. They will also install six more parking signs around the edge of the car park which provide details of the new arrangements including:
- Guidance for customers on how to record their registration number in reception so they can park free of charge for up to four hours
- The parking charges, for those who wish to pay, and how to pay for parking
- A warning saying “Failure to comply with the terms and conditions will result in a parking charge of £100”
Parking Eye have also installed barriers around the edge of the far end of the car park which will prevent anyone parking on the grassed area to the east of the car park. This was required by Parking Eye and agreed with Gateshead Council, who are responsible for this land.
