Pay-on-foot ticketed parking is being installed at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Users include hotel guests and residents above the car park. The site is home to the Mary Rose and HMS Victory (pictured; HMS Warrior); and beside a ferry, train, coach and bus station has 90,000 cars arriving each year.
Patrick Holmes, Deputy Chief Executive of the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, says: “For those travelling by car, the visitor experience starts and ends at the car park, so it has to make the right impression. We chose the WPS pay-on-foot system because we had already been convinced it is an efficient alternative to pay and display requiring fewer staff and not having to rely on enforcement – which is vital for the customer experience. It is also completely self-service, supporting covid safety.”
Two of WPS’ ParkAdvance pay stations, one cashless, will support chip and pin, contactless, Apple and Google Pay, and feature an intuitive 12-inch, customisable colour screen and IP intercom. Chip and pin and contactless payment will be taken at exit barriers, for customers who forget to pay earlier. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras will be installed at the entry and exit barriers, enabling use of parking payment apps. The app provides pre-payment, season ticket and free-flow access options for subscribers entering and exiting automatically when the ANPR system recognises registered car number plates. RFID proximity readers will provide access to residents. The system works with Portsmouth City Council’s VMS communications to enable the reporting of number of parking spaces in the city centre.
Patrick says: “Setting up different access for various users, local hotel guests and residents, for example, is very straightforward. And future-proofing our investment, we can add functionality as and when required – for example when feasible, we may introduce loyalty promotions such as discounted parking for customers that eat in restaurants in the Dockyard.”
