A 4.2 metre diameter turntable designed by British Turntable has allowed a property developer to provide more parking spaces for residents in a new apartment block on the Isle of Man.

The turntable was chosen by the builders, Brookvale Properties of Ramsey, to optimise the basement area of the building. As the apartment block is situated on a sloping site, space became available at basement level for parking, however this was a fairly limited amount, and Brookvale felt that more bays could be provided if access to them could be improved.

John Richmond of Brookvale explains: “Installing the turntable means that drivers don’t need the normal turning circle of a car to manoeuvre their vehicles in and out of the car park. All they do is drive onto the turntable, push the car round manually, and drive or reverse into the relevant parking bay. It’s an ingenious, yet simple, concept, and it’s so easy to turn a car round that it can be used by all ages.

“We’ve also installed electronic gates to the parking area so that residents of the block have good, secure off-road parking facilities for their vehicles. They really appreciate the whole idea, especially as it means they can drive onto and off the property without reversing or making multi-point turns.”

The installation, which includes a braking system recommended by British Turntable to ensure that the turntable is not moved accidentally, also means that residents can drive onto and off the main road in a forwards direction, as does British Turntable’s domestic DriveAway turntable for a single home. The DriveAway was designed specifically to make it safer for car owners living on main roads to access their properties by eliminating the need to reverse onto or off the drive. The standard, 3.6 metre diameter DriveAway is suitable for most family-size cars, however for a multi-occupancy building such as Brookvale had built, a unit with greater capacity was needed to allow for larger vehicles and the higher frequency of use. Both the DriveAway and custom-built vehicle turntables are designed with a low profile to make them easy to flush-fit into the base surface; they can also be adapted for electrical operation where this is more appropriate to the site.