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 Since the publication of Lord Justice Taylor's report on the Hillsborough disaster, all sports grounds with a capacity of 10,000 or more require a Safety Certificate issued by the local authority under either the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 or the Fire Safety and safety of Places of Sport Act 1987. One of the requirements for complying with the requirements for the certificate is that spectators entering all sections of the ground, including VIP and lounge areas, should be accurately counted at their time of entry, and their number controlled in order to ensure that overcrowding does not occur. This applies even if entry to the event is by ticket or electronic entry card only.
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Applications
In the past, people were generally counted using hand-held counting devices known as ‘clickers’. The holder increments the clicker by pressing a button each time a person passes through an access point. This system was not particularly accurate and there was no easy means of keeping track of the total count of multiple clickers when used to count people into the same area. Modern systems use an electronic means of recording people as they pass through an access point.
Vehicle counting is becoming a common requirement for car parks regardless of their size. It is a great convenience for visitors to be aware of the number of available spaces before they enter a car park or venture into another section of the car park. Traffic monitoring on roads is also becoming commonplace as highway authorities and council transport departments strive to reduce congestion.
Many counting systems simply need to keep a record of the vehicles entering and leaving a car park and to display a ‘Full’ sign at the entrance when there are no free spaces. The entry barrier must be prevented from allowing vehicles to enter while the sign shows ‘Full’.