Staff wishing to apply for a General staff parking permit must check their home postcode lies outside the University's parking exclusion zone prior to submitting an application.
This tool calculates the distance between the staff member's home postcode and centre of the parking permit exclusion zone (Tyndall Avenue).
If this distance is calculated to be less than two miles, a General staff parking permit will not be accepted.
Once you have confirmed you are eligible to apply, please return to the parking permit management website and complete your application.
If you are not eligible to apply for a permit, you can find out about alternative travel options on our Transport pages.
Why has the exclusion zone been set at two miles?
Many University staff live close to their place of work. For those living within the two-mile exclusion zone, public transport availability is very good, while for some it is viable to cycle or even walk to the University. While wider exclusion zones were also considered, it was concluded that a two-mile zone strikes the best balance between the size of zone required to manage parking demand and the greatest and most comprehensive range of transport options available for those who unfortunately live within the zone.
How is the 2-mile exclusion zone calculated?
The calculation is based on the as the crow flies distance between the centre point of the home postcode you provide and the centre point of the University, which for the purposes of the parking policy is on Tyndall Avenue. The result presented by the postcode checker will likely be different from those produced using an online journey planner, such as Google Maps or the AA, which use the UK road network. Using the crow fly distance ensures that all staff can be assessed consistently as the result does not depend on the choice of route driven to the University.
How is the crow fly distance actually calculated?
The 2 mile (3.219km) exclusion zone is measured as a crow fly (straight line) distance from a central point on Tyndall Avenue, (referred to as Point A). The Ordnance Survey (OS) grid reference of Point A is 358255, 173520. To determine whether a postcode lies within this 2 mile distance, the postcode checker tool looks up the OS grid reference of the centroid of the University employee’s home postcode and uses this to calculate the distance from Point A. The OS grid reference of every postcode centroid in the UK is freely available from the OS in their OS Code-Point Open dataset. Once the OS grid reference of the home postcode centroid has been identified, (referred to as Point B), the difference in the easting and northings of Point A and Point B is calculated by subtraction and the straight line distance is calculated using Pythagorean Theorem.
What if the postcode checker says that I live within the exclusion zone but when I check a journey planner the distance is greater than two miles?
Websites such as Google maps provide a driving or walking distance following roads and paths which will result in a greater distance than the crow fly distance. It is not possible for the University to fairly take into account the results that are generated from these online journey planner tools, as these are dependent on a number of variables that would be difficult to validate and may vary considerably between applicants. The University has created the postcode checker to ensure that eligibility for a staff parking permit can be consistently applied.
