Access report

BiCon 2018 is at the University of Salford's Peel Park Campus.

  • Accommodation is in Peel Park Quarter West.
  • Most daytime sessions are in the Chapman Building.
  • Evening entertainments, some daytime activities and the creche are in University House
  • BiCon participants can also use the Sports Centre and the Multi-faith centre. (The Sports Centre costs £7.50 per session)

For more information

Parking

There is parking available on campus for BiCon attendees. Each carpark has some disabled parking spaces reserved for blue badge holders. If you do not have a blue badge you will have to pay for parking. If this is an access problem for you please contact us.

The University has outsourced its car parking to a Company called Paybyphone.co.uk.

There are car parking spaces underneath Delaney 1 overnight accommodation (postcode M5 4QJ)

There are car parking spaces underneath Pankhurst (at the back of Lowry 1 ) overnight accommodation (postcode M5 4FA)

There are car parking spaces on Irwell Place Car Park behind Faraday House (postcode M5 4WT)

You will need to download the PayByPhone app from here before arrival and you can then pay for parking whenever you are on site. The Location Code is 59323.

In case of no web connection, you can also ring them on 0161 880 0100 and Irwell Place carpark has a pay and display machine.

Current charges are :-

  • £1.20 for 90 minutes
  • £2.40 for 180 minutes
  • £4.00  from 9.00am to 6.00pm

After 6.00pm parking is free on all car parks until 9.00am the next morning

There are spaces reserved for registered Blue Badge holders in every car park and this parking is free.

The small Chapman carpark is reserved for people with access needs only. We will need your registration number in advance if you need this so it can be put on a white list before arrival.

Bicycle parking facilities are also available.

Our accommodation: Peel Park Quarter West

Peel Park Quarter West is a set of accommodation blocks which are set around a shared grassed space. The accommodation is divided into flats. All BiCon flats will be for BiCon attenders only. Some other flats will be occupied by non-BiCon people such as Summer Schools.

Most of the flats are above the ground floor. All flats can be reached by stairs and a lift. There is information about the regular bedrooms on our accommodation page at https://2018.bicon.org.uk/venue/accommodation/

There is a coin operated laundry available to anyone staying in accommodation.

Safety

  • Security is onsite at all times and halls staff are onsite in the daytime.
  • There are smoke and heat detectors throughout the halls. Fire alarms are on a “double knock” system – if smoke or heat is detected a staff member will check there is a fire before setting off evacuation alarms.
  • Visual fire alerters are available only in specific accessible rooms – we need to know in advance to set this up in relevant rooms.
  • Emergency information is displayed in all flats.

For families

Children of any age are allowed to share a room and a bed with their responsible adult. You are not allowed to bring any cots or child beds into the rooms.
You can also book a separate room for your child. Please contact us if you want to do this.

Accessible rooms


There are 8  wheelchair accessible rooms in Peel Quarter. They are in ground floor flats which have two accessible rooms and 3-5 other rooms in each flat.

The kitchens in these flats have adapted kitchen worktops and appliances.

We did not get to see the accessible rooms or flats during our site visit due to students occupying them but they are very new, so we hope they will be of a high standard.

The accessible rooms include:-

  • A large accessible wet room including a shower with grab rails and a pull down shower seat
  • Wardrobe with drop arm level
  • Emergency alarm pull cord in the bathroom and bedroom
  • LED smoke alarm and vibrating pillow – please ask if you need this
  • Accessible window winder.

Our daytime space: Chapman Building

This is where we will have most of our daytime sessions. It is about 210 metres from the accommodation and 220m from University House.

There is more information about accessibility for Chapman Building at Disabled Go – https://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/university-of-salford/chapman-building

There is a small car park to the side of Chapman with two blue-badge parking spaces and around 20 other spaces. This carpark will only be available for people who need it for access reasons and needs to be booked in advance. Please email 2018@bicon.org.uk if you need this. We will need your registration number in advance if you need this so it can be put on a white list before arrival. 

Chapman building has a main entrance at the front and a side entrance which is next to the small car park. The nearest blue badge bay is 5m from the side entrance.

Both entrances to Chapman are through wide double doors which open automatically, there is an easy ramp/slope up to the main entrance and level access to the right of the side entrance.

There is a level change between the side entrance and the BiCon desk. There are four clearly marked steps with handrails on both sides as well as a platform lift between the levels.

The BiCon desk will be in the lounge area on the ground floor. There will be snack and drink machines available in this area. There is plenty of mixed seating here, including seats with and without arms, benches and some fixed seating. There is ample room for a wheelchair user to manoeuvre.

BiCon sessions will take place in a lecture theatre, three seminar rooms and a large study zone area in Chapman, all of which are accessed by lift.

We will be marking some seats in each room as reserved for people with access needs. These will include some seats at the front and some near the door.

The lecture theatre and seminar rooms are accessed by a regular lift, and the study zone by a press and hold platform lift.

To get from the ground floor to the top you will need to use more than one lift.

As there is only one lift to each level we will be asking people who can use the stairs to do so. All the stairs in Chapman are well lit and clearly marked and have handrails.

There is a rest space on the first floor which we will be using as a quieter social area. Next to this space is a smaller study pod which we will be using as a quiet room.

There are accessible toilets on each floor of Chapman building

University House

University House is about 100m from the accommodation and 220m from Chapman building.

The main door to the building is up an easy slope through wide double doors which are automatic.

There is a lift from the entrance going up and a different lift into the basement. This means you need to change lifts to get from the bar and cafe on level 3 to the creche and Purple zone in the basement.

Atmosphere bar and cafe

The bar and cafe are both on Level 3. There is a double set of doors between the two spaces. The doors are quite heavy and not automatic.

The cafe is an alcohol free area. It will be serving a basic selection of food during the day. We will tell the venue to provide extra vegetarian, vegan and gluten free food and to make sure food ingredients are clearly marked. We will add the opening hours of the cafe to our website when we know them.

Both the bar and the cafe have mixed seating including seats with and without arms and some fixed seating.

There is a seating area called the Lounge within the bar which is up some steps. There is no lift access to this area. We will only use this area for extra seating.

We will do our best to make sure the lighting is adequate in the bar and the cafe. In the evening the cafe will be more brightly lit than the bar.

There will be some background music playing in the daytime and louder music in the evening. We will try to make sure the music is not too loud. The cafe will be a quieter area than the bar.

The Purple Zone and creche

There is a large open plan area in the basement of University House. We will be calling this area the Purple Zone. In the evening this area will be a quieter social space and games space. In the daytime we will be scheduling some activities in this area. The creche will also be in a room next to this area.

There is mixed seating in the purple zone, some sofas and some chairs without arms. There is a wheelchair accessible toilet on this floor. There is a gender neutral toilet on this floor.

We will not be playing any background music in this area, and the lighting will be brighter than the bar area.