English Chess Forum

Adam R has a link in his signature to http://www.britishchess2010.com which contains a map of the campus.

http://www.britishchess2010.com/download/01maps.pdf

in which you read

The visitors’ car park on Giles Lane is a ‘Pay and Display’ car park. Parking elsewhere is very restricted and for permit
holders only.

So what is the cost of parking and availability of permits for
(a) visitors resident elsewhere
(b) those resident on campus ?

You rather expect that a city centre venue (like Liverpool or Olympia) is going to be expensive to take a car to. What is the position at Canterbury? The last university based British at Swansea had free parking.

Last year at Torquay, the Riviera Centre car park was several pounds a day but many hotels had free car parks and were within walking distance of the Centre.

This page might be of some use: http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/parking

It looks like there's a park and ride system, which would probably be cheapest for those travelling each day from elsewhere.

Eoin Devane wrote:This page might be of some use: http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/parking

It looks like there's a park and ride system, which would probably be cheapest for those travelling each day from elsewhere.

That's for the Canterbury city centre itself which is rather like Oxford. The British Championships are at the University of Kent campus which is out of town "14 minutes from the bus station". In an Oxford context, the equivalent of somewhere near Kidlington.

So I see. The map on the Canterbury website doesn't have a scale on it, so I didn't realise that the University was so far from the centre. That said, there's probably a bus from the centre up to the Campus, so it could be that the Park and Ride is still the best option, as Pay & Display car parks can be rather expensive.

I think in the middle of the summer vacation there will be much more parking available than during term time.

I visited the Canterbury venue last August and it seemed to me that travel to and from the center of Canterbury to the venue was going to be a serious problem for many competitors (and their families). I attended the sales pitch for Canterbury at the British Championships in Torquay 2009 where both ECF representatives and Canterbury Council Officials informed us that it was only a 30-min walk (!) from the Cathedral to the playing hall. Well, I can assure you that it is nearer an hour, especially from the centre of town to the venue which is all uphill. I spoke to several of the students who were working in the Tourist Information Office who all said that most students had tried the walk once - but never twice(!). Furthermore, the bus service outside term time is lousy. I was there for nearly two hours and only saw one bus. Will competititors really want to pay for two Taxi fares every day? The range of accomodation is also very sparse. The centre of Canterbury is VERY expensive and there are very few hotels so are the ECF expecting the majority of people to stay on campus with shared bathrooms, shared Kitchen facilities etc.? What a joke...

There is a limited amount of cheap parking but I doubt if any concessions will be given. At Torquay it was £6 a day to park at the venue - you would have thought that competitors would have been given a free pass, wouldn`t you? ...

I do understand what the attraction of getting a free venue must have to the ECF board but, quite frankly, expecting players to commute in from Whitstable, Herne Bay, Margate, Ramsgate etc. on public transport is just laughable, yet this has been offered to me as being more than reasonable ...

Don`t get me wrong, Canterbury is a lovely place to visit for a day, even a long weekend - but two weeks is going to seem an awfully long time.

Hi Guys,

A downloadable programme will be available from the congress website nearer to the time of event. The back page of this program will have a parking permit on it. Obviously you only need to print that page if you want. (It is in the form of a pdf file and is basically just waiting on a few bits and pieces.)

A limited number of permits will also be available from the Congress Office during the event.

Hope this solves that problem.

Alex McFarlane
Co-Manager

Spelling corrected!!!

.

Perhaps I should declare an interest having studied at the Canterbury campus for 3 years. ( I should qualify for free entry along with more competent members of the team that won the Thanet League, Fenella Headlong ne Cohen amongst them.).

The walk from town is indeed a substantial one given that we live in a society adverse to exercise, but in truth not that unhealthy if you are seeking to clear youir head before a chess match which is potentially of seven hours duration. Not studied the bus timetable to the university proper but it adjoins one of the main roads to the Isle of Thanet so if you include a shorter walk at journeys end, the frequency may be more favourable than others suggest.

Many students routinely cope with travelling in from neighbouring town and villages on regular bus timetables. Whilst I accept this is supposed to be a holiday, I don't see why this should be an issue.

My advice would be visit and enjoy - the transport issues are really no worse than any other venue. ( and I have played at Dundee, Nottingham, Hove, Plymouth, Norwich, and Edinburgh to name a few I can remember)

I see from Google maps that the distance from Cathedral to venue is 1.9 miles, and an anticipated 35 minutes walk (not taking account of the local topography).

I have written to a local bus company, Stagecoach, asking for support as they previously supported an event I ran in Oxford, and I expect most of our particpants will be using local buses.

I have also approached Southeastern Railways as they run the marvellous new high-speed rail link from London to all destinations, which takes less than one hour from St Pancras to the venue at Canterbury West. This route used to be at least 40 minutes longer. The typical return ticket is about £25-£30.

This makes it very practical for anyone in London to commute to and from the tournament, especially to events with an afternoon start or the weekend rapidplays.

John Anderson wrote: There is a limited amount of cheap parking but I doubt if any concessions will be given. At Torquay it was £6 a day to park at the venue - you would have thought that competitors would have been given a free pass, wouldn`t you? ...

Alex McFarlane wrote: A downloadable programme will be available from the congress website nearer to the time of event. The back page of this program will have a parking permit on it.

Humble pie anyone?

Humble pie anyone

I don't see why. Surely that is the power of this forum. Roger has raised the parking issue for the championships, always a concern at any event these days, and John has noted and passed on some potential problems. Alex and Adam have had a chance to explain to people how they can avoid those problems. Adam has also made people aware of the speed of the new rail link to Kent which might produce some extra entries from people living in London.

Communication at it's best I would have thought.

michele clack wrote:

Humble pie anyone

I don't see why. Surely that is the power of this forum. Roger has raised the parking issue for the championships, always a concern at any event these days, and John has noted and passed on some potential problems. Alex and Adam have had a chance to explain to people how they can avoid those problems. Adam has also made people aware of the speed of the new rail link to Kent which might produce some extra entries from people living in London.

Communication at it's best I would have thought.

I was referring to John's comment "I doubt if any concessions will be given" which looks rather silly in the light of the fact that this had already been addressed by the inclusion of a parking permit in the programme.

[quote]I was referring to John's comment "I doubt if any concessions will be given" which looks rather silly in the light of the fact that this had already been addressed by the inclusion of a parking permit in the programme[quote]

Well if there were no concessions last year that seems to be a reasonable expectation. I think the fact that parking concessions will be given this year speaks very well of the current organisers. Giving publicity to this can be no bad thing whilst people are making their minds up whether to go or not. Roger was right to raise the subject. Parkling can be such a nightmare these days that many people will have been reassured.

michele clack wrote:Well if there were no concessions last year that seems to be a reasonable expectation. I think the fact that parking concessions will be given this year speaks very well of the current organisers. Giving publicity to this can be no bad thing whilst people are making their minds up whether to go or not. Roger was right to raise the subject. Parkling can be such a nightmare these days that many people will have been reassured.

I liked the 'forum power' reason better