Overview

This review mostly relates to EV charging at this location. Paisley Central Retail Park is on Renfrew Road, confusingly located across the street from the Renfrew Road Retail Park. Home to Starbucks, B&M and possibly the worst-placed Greggs I've ever seen - immediately next door to Pure Gym. This year, they removed several standard parking bays and installed ESB branded Ultrarapid Electric Vehicle (EV) charging.

Transport & Parking

Located in a retail park, there are plenty of standard spaces for those visiting the businesses on site, with 1 accessible space at Greggs, 5 at Pure Gym, 5 at B&M and 2 at Starbucks. There are 8 CCS-type 300kW EV Charging Spaces.

Access

Though there's room for improvement, the EV spaces are the best I've seen in Paisley. They're level with the road, with additional hatched markings at the bottom of the spaces. This elongates the parking area, which leaves plenty of space for drivers to manoeuvre themselves between the front of the car and the charger. There's also hatched marking on either side of the space, allowing the driver and passenger doors to be opened that bit wider. These markings are about 50% of the width of the markings on standard accessible spaces. The charging units have something I haven't seen anywhere else in the town, a mechanical arm at the top that holds the weight of the charging cables provided. This can be easily pulled forward making these heavy wires easier to hook up to your car. As the markings to the side aren't wide enough to fully open the driver door if someone parks beside you, using the bay at the start of the row might be preferable. There's an unmarked section to the left of the space, that would allow disabled drivers to park slightly over the hatching without blocking another space, giving room for the door to open fully. As with many EV chargers, there are bollards to the front of the machine, but these aren't overly obstructive when accessing the cables. The card reader and visual display are on the left side of the machine. Users will need to move themselves around the bollards to access this panel. The second EV charger in the row is next to a lamppost surrounded by a metal barrier. The position of this is obstructive as it's on the left of where the card reader is located. It might be best not to use that one if you can avoid it

Toilets

Not specific to the EV charging but there is an accessible toilet at the nearby Starbucks, however, the entryway has heavy glass doors, and there's a solid wooden door to the corridor where the toilets are located. On each of my visits, the staff have been quick to recognise that I'm a wheelchair user and have held both the entrance, and toilet doors for me. The toilet is generally clean, with a low sink, and grab rails on either side of the toilet seat and the sink. Waste and sanitary bins are provided, there's no need for a radar key and there are baby change facilities. On my visits, the red cord has always hung to the floor. Greggs have indoor seating and an accessible toilet, though I haven't used it.

Staff

This location is unstaffed.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

They've done a great job, and unlike many other locations, they don't appear to have been concerned with making sure the car park had the same number of spaces by the end of the installation. They've sacrificed three or four standard spaces for the hatched markings. It's just a shame these aren't wider. Installing wider spaces and removing the minor obstructions would make these spaces perfect. As Ultrarapid Chargers go, these are the only ones I've seen in the town.

Photos