Although we are not situated on the Sandwich Bay private estate, the only safe vehicular access to our car park is along Guilford Road which is owned by and maintained by the Sandwich Bay Estate. The Estate use ANPR technology to monitor vehicles using the Estate roads. Annual passes can be purchased from the main toll booth for access to the seafront or to regularly drive through.
Sandwich Bay Estate make the following concessions for SBBOT
- SBBOT members can drive to the Observatory car park for free as long as they arrive and leave by the same Estate entrance. In order to benefit from this concession members need to display a “B” sticker on their windscreen. This can be obtained in March by showing their membership card at the main toll booth at the Sandwich entrance to the Estate (membership cards are issued when members renew their SBBOT membership in January each year or when they join).
- SBBOT Members with recognised mobility issues can obtain one of a limited number of “BS” stickers which allows them to drive as far as the scrape (and return through the same Estate entrance). In order to benefit from this concession, they need to get their membership card signed on the reverse by a Trustee before presenting it at the main toll booth.
- Non-members visiting the Observatory are charged a discretionary fee of £1 by the Estate for access to the Observatory car park and must return through the same Estate entrance. If the toll booth is unstaffed, they should put £1 and a note with the registration of the car in the main toll booth or pay online before the end of the day.
NB No vehicles should ever be parked on the Observatory access track. This is the only access for emergency vehicles to the Field Centre and beyond and for farm vehicles (some of which are very large).