Country park car parking capacity analysis
Client: Huntingdonshire District Council
For this project, PSC carried out a research project to compare car parking provision and visitor throughput across different sites in support of a planning application being submitted by Huntingdonshire District Council to introduce additional car parking spaces at one of the Council’s leading country parks, intended to cater for the expected increased throughput as a result of a wide range of infrastructure and facility improvements.
The intention was to increase car parking capacity to better cope with heavy demand periods of high demand, and included disabled spaces and EV charging.
PSC carried out a benchmarking research programme of more than 40 UK country parks to ascertain the ration between scale, visitor throughput and car parking provision. The research helped to determine the provision of parking at other country parks and outdoor recreation sites in the UK, primarily in England.
The 40+ sites managed by local authorities and other organisations, provided a good sample to identify the number of visits and the number of car parking spaces (both permanent and overflow) available at the individual sites. The total number of annual visits across the country parks and recreational sites responding to the survey represented just over 12 million users.
Overall, the research compared carious elements of the country park parking provision including:
- Parking space provision
- Ratio of visits per parking space
- Charging for car parking
- Parking charging systems
The survey also determined how often the parks reach capacity in a typical year and if they currently offer disabled provision and EV charging points.
The survey assessed both permanent and overflow parking provision and we recognise often overflow parking is less specific and often does not have marked out dedicated spaces.
How can we help?
If you have any questions about carrying car parking assessment at a country park or other visitor site please don’t hesitate to call Richard Linington on 07866 742628 or email richard@pslplan.co.uk