The short answer to this question is, “We aren't sure yet”, but on Saturday, 17 March, several of us set out from Chorlton Library to look for possible spots. We were guided by three main concerns:

• The cars ought to be close to member's homes
• The cars should be hard to steal
• Members should feel safe, day or night, when picking the cars up or returning them

We felt that on-street parking was likely to be too much of a bureaucratic hassle, and so concentrated on off-road parking places. The ideal site would, in addition to being safe and convenient, offer a secure place to park bicycles (and perhaps to store things like baby seats), and have some signs to give the club publicity and to discourage non-members from using the spaces (locking bollards might come in handy here too).

The map below is a sketch of the Chorlton/Whalley Range area, which is where most people who have expressed interest in the car club live. It covers much of the same area as pages 100, 101 and 116 of the Manchester A-to-Z. Potential members, whose homes are plotted as small black dots, fall into two rough clusters, each of which is shown on the map, enclosed in a circle that is 1 mile across. All the people at the meeting were from the northernmost circle, which is centred on the Chorlton Leisure Centre, so we looked for sites near there. We made notes about ten sites: these and an enlarged map appear below.

The sites discussed below are only a preliminary list: we have not yet spoken to any of their owners and we are still open to suggestions from other potential members.
	Car park at Unicorn Wholefoods Social Services car park Esso Garage, 111 Manchester Road Chorlton Leisure Centre The Grove Pub Albany Trading Estate Safeway Shell Garage, Wilbraham Road Hawarden Avenue Behind a block of flats on Upper Chorlton Road
In the notes below, click to return to this detailed map and list of sites or to return to the top of the page.

1. The car park outside Unicorn Wholefoods (north end of Albany Road)
Although Unicorn seems likely to be supportive of the Car Co-op idea, they share their car park with Town & Country Driveways (front entrance Manchester Road) and, at present, have have only three spaces. The car park includes excellent bicycle-locking facilities, but personal security is not all that good in this area. The car park is not overlooked at all at night and, worse still, it seems to be locked at night.

2. Social Services (109 Manchester Road)
Although the main entrance to the building is on busy, well-lit Manchester Road, the car park is around the back on somewhat darker, less busy Albany Road and so has the same problems of personal security as Unicorn's car park. And here again, there aren't all that many spaces.

3. Esso Garage (111 Manchester Road)
The garage has three car parking spaces, currently used by Barbakan and United Carpets among others. On the positive side, this site is on a busy, well-lit road and is staffed: it offers excellent security. On the other hand, there seems to be a bit of a demand for these spaces, so Esso probably charges a fee for them.

4. Chorlton Leisure Centre
There are not all that many spaces here (and they are in demand by users of the Centre), but the place seems fairly safe and is owned by the Council, who seem broadly sympathetic to the Car Club. Perhaps they would let us use a couple of spaces cheaply.

5. The Grove Pub
There are a great many spaces here and, between the pub and the nearby shops, the place is fairly busy and well-overlooked throughout most of the day. Presumably the pub's owners would want to charge us something if we kept the Co-op's cars here.

6. The Albany Trading Estate
There are two sets of parking spaces that are overlooked from Albany road, which is a bit busier here than down at the Unicorn end. Most of the spaces lie behind gates that are locked at night, but four at the northern end are outside the fence.

7. Safeway
A huge car park at a busy, high-profile site that offers good security for both the cars and our members. There is even some bicycle parking, though it leaves a bit to be desired. Safeway, who seem to have an interest in community involvement, might be willing to offer some parking as a way of sponsoring the club.

8. Shell Garage (Wilbraham Road)
An excellent location: busy, well-lit and staffed 24 hours a day. But unfortunately there doesn't appear to be much extra space for parking cars.

9. Garage on Hawarden Avenue in Whalley Range
This site is a bit out of the way, but appears to offer an enclosed place where such things as bicycles and child seats could be kept. It seems likely to be expensive, perhaps £20-£30 per week.

10. Behind a block of flats on Upper Chorlton Road
This site has many of the same attractions and drawbacks as the previous one, though as it is close to a lot of flats, it may be somewhat safer.

Emma Wilton wrote the notes on which this page was based and Jeff Turner made the original versions of the maps. Susanne Langer redrew them, converting them to electronic form.

This page last changed Wednesday, 12 June 2002.