Top notch parking at Liverpool One
Published: 30 September, 2008
Liverpool One is the largest regeneration project to open in Europe this year, so it may not come as a surprise that three car parks with a total of 3,000 spaces have been built to cater for the thousands of shoppers visiting the scheme every day.
Q-Park has built and is running all three - the John Lewis car park, previously known as Liver Street car park when it opened nearly three years ago, as well as Gradwell Street multi-storey, which opened recently, and Strand Street underground car park, which opened when Phase One launched at the end of May.
Strand Street is the car park which has attracted a lot of media attention of late, due to its impressive engineering and layout, aesthetics and top-notch customer service.
The five-level state of the art car park has been built underneath Chavasse Park and is a secure site that allows access only to paying patrons after hours. Pedestrians have to insert their parking ticket to gain access, ensuring maximum safety and security. In addition, the car park is manned 24-hours a day, seven days a week, and this staff presence adds to the feeling of security and the high level of customer service.
Speaking from the control room in Strand Street, Kyle Slawson, cluster operations manager at Q-Park Liverpool, explains that the Q-Park car parks in the north-west of the city are unusual in being manned from the control room at Strand Street, night and day, as normally control reverts to the central control room in Maastricht, Holland, after hours. "We decided to control the whole product from here, 24/7," says Slawson. "We knew Liverpool was a very busy cluster. It's a commitment we made when we signed to the whole shopping development. As a result, we can ensure the car parks are run properly at all times.
"We have four data managers who each work 12-hour shifts. We have 20 parking hosts across the three sites who work eight-hour shifts and make sure each car park is safe and clean.
"All of our cameras are also monitored by the Liverpool One security team. This gives the public an extra dimension of safety, as they may see something that we miss."
Strand Street is certainly no ordinary underground car park. For a start, no one could call it dark and gloomy, like many underground facilities, due to a lack of natural light. Q-Park has given a lot of attention to lighting effects and high lux levels so that drivers feel safe when they enter the car park. Each level features different coloured uplighters to distinguish between the floors. The signage is red for traffic and green for pedestrians, making it easy for shoppers to navigate their way around the huge 2,000-space edifice.
Other unique design points include the staircase that leads up to the mall, which is modelled on a windmill, and the extra-wide parking spaces.
"We have the bigger bays," says Slawson. "The normal bays are the size of the disabled bays you find in other car parks. There are disabled bays on each level as well, but the majority are on Level 3 as that's where Shop Mobility is."
Ease of access begins at the entrance to the car park where there are five entry lanes. A full vehicle messaging system (VMS) assists drivers in finding a free space, while strategically placed columns mean there is no negotiating around pillars when driving into the parking bays. The ease of the traffic flow continues when it's time to leave, as again there are five exit lanes.
For pedestrians, lifts and staircases take shoppers straight up onto the malls, while from October 1, when the restaurants and cinema open, a further lift shaft will be available, taking people straight into the leisure area of the scheme. At the same time, customers are treated to a variety of added extras, such as buggy and umbrella hire, and a golf buggy is available to take them back to their car if they're carrying a lot of bags. A 100-space bike store is also available to cyclists who want to secure their bikes while they go shopping. In addition, there are defibrillators on site and jump starts are also available for broken-down vehicles. Once the restaurants and bars are open, Q-Park will also be providing alcohol breathalisers for 20p so drivers can test whether or not they're over the limit before driving home.
But it's not only the services that are impressing customers, says Slawson. "People come in and say 'wow'. People think it must be a private car park. Shoppers appreciate it and the fact it's so close to the shops. Liverpool One is all about quality and that's what Q-Park is all about as well."
Slawson says Strand Street is a prime location for big events. "The MTV Awards are being held in Liverpool in November and we think the after-show parties should be held here.
"We're also talking to charities in Liverpool who want to do the Three Car Parks instead of the Three Peaks."
Q-Park likes to employ local people with local knowledge, so customers who ask for help at the main reception lodge can also get directions and obtain information about what's going on within the multi-faceted Liverpool One development.
"For example, if we see someone in a football kit and we know there's a footballer in the Nike store, then we can let that customer know," says Slawson.
With pricing also competitive with other city centre car parks, it's not surprising that Strand Street is proving increasingly popular with Liverpool's shoppers.
