About Project

Temporary Car Parks & Management Plan

Details

The Port of Blyth will come alive in August 2016 when it hosts the Tall Ships Regatta. The North Sea Tall Ships Regatta is being held for only the second time in six years. For Blyth in Northumberland, this is the first major Tall Ships event they have hosted and the town is eager to welcome the international fleet of Tall Ships. 2016 is also a special year as The Tall Ships Races will be celebrating a diamond anniversary as it will be sixty years since the first Tall Ships race in 1956. Some of the largest and most spectacular Tall Ships in the world will sail into Blyth providing a fantastic maritime celebration for the region. The four-day event is expected to attract thousands of visitors who will be able to access the ships, enjoy live music and fireworks as well as experience a spectacular Crew Parade, Eve of Sail celebration and Parade of Sail.

The Project

GPS successfully tendered for and were commissioned by Northumberland County Council to deliver the designs for the temporary car parking provision and management plan for the 60th North Sea Tall Ships Regatta 2016 over the weekend of 26th – 29th August 2016.

Our Expertise

The project brief GPS received, was to produce the design layouts for all temporary car parks associated with the event, to identify the required stewarding positions and all the necessary equipment and facilities through which to enable the smooth operation of pre-booked, paid for, VIP and blue badge car parking provision for the full event across multiple sites in Blyth.

We subsequently produced a report which served to feed into the overall Event Management Plan document. The report identified access routes, temporary signage required, site layouts, quantified equipment, locations for Park and Ride Bus pick up points, cash collection points, contingency planning for wet weather conditions and a methodology for monitoring the numbers of vehicles arriving and leaving to determine the number of cars on site at any given time. In addition to this report, the GPS team also produce a set of 27 design drawings for 12 individual sites which indicated the optimum car parking layout design in order to maximise site utilisation.

The Outcome

It was felt that the whole event was a tremendous success for the region. The huge influx of visitors to the Tall Ships Regatta and the region as a whole was viewed as a major boost to the local economy, with estimates of approximately 500,000 visitors over the four days. The Tall Ships Regatta event dramatically raised the profile of the region both nationally and internationally.

The role played by GPS in this event was highly successful, with all design provisions operating to plan and as expected. The Management Plan was successfully produced within an extremely tight timeframe set by the client and delivered on time and to budget. GPS were thrilled to have been able to be a part of such a high status event for the Region and the kudos which its successful operation has brought to the North East.