Free to use Kiosks

The five councils in Tyne and Wear got together to develop an easy way for everyone to access:

• Council services
• Tourist information
• Transport information
• And much more

You could just go to your nearest i+ Point, and touch:

You can access services and information at any time, and contact your local council from any i+ Point in Tyne and Wear. For example

• Find out how to recycle in South Shields while shopping in Newcastle.
• Find out about developing a business in Sunderland during a family day out in Whitley Bay.
• Find out what’s on at Newcastle City Hall after visiting the BALTIC arts centre in Gateshead.

The kiosks were provided and operated by Cityspace.

Touchscreen Services

You could access services from Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland councils, such as:

• An A-Z of services – for information such as when bins will be emptied, how to contact social services and where to find sports facilities.
• Jobs search and applications
• Who’s my local Councillor?
• Contact us
• Request a form
• Reporting environmental issues

#Note: Services varied for each council.

Visitor and tourist information across the region

Tourist Information was available for the Tyne and Wear region, including:

• Places to visit
• Accommodation listings
• Travel and transport
• Nightlife
• Dining out
• Regional events
• Things to see and do

What was available at the i+ Points?

Travel	Nights Out	Mapping	Council Services

‘All aboard’ the kiosks!

Ships, crews and spectators at the Tall Ships Race in Newcastle in July 2005 benefitted from a free Wi-Fi signal on both sides of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge from the start of the Mouth of the River Festival.
The wireless broadband service provided free internet access to anyone with a wirelessly enabled device within 300 metres of each of the iPlus Information Points on either side of the quay.

“The crew of the very first ship to sail in the week before the race asked where the nearest ‘hotspot’ was as soon as they docked” said Philip Payne, Tall Ships manager.
“From ship to shore, the service is very conveniently located on both sides of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, giving racing crews, press and spectators a really valuable facility completely free of charge.”
In keeping with the festivities, the postcard entries for the competition run by Northern Print Studio at Fish Quay entitled ‘If all the world were paper and all the sea were ink’, were available in a virtual gallery on the iPlus Point network.

See Cityspace’s Press Release here.

Sunderland International Airshow

Kiosks also support visitors to the annual Sunderland International Airshow.

Government Award
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister awarded the TWICT Partnership £500,000 of support towards the establishment of the network of kiosks and services through its Local Government On Line II Programme

e-Government Excellence Awards 2004
TWICT was a finalist in the inaugural e-Government Excellence Awards: Local Government Team Category. Click here for our press release.

Kiosk locations

List of i+Point locations carrying Open:tyne&wear services (end March 2008).

Note that this list will have changed since that date.

Cityspace ID numbers generally reflect the commissioning date of the kiosks.

i+Plus kiosks are available in other locations in the UK including nearby Easington and Redcar & Cleveland.

Find them using Cityspace’s kiosk finder.

Kiosk FAQs

Common Questions

Does the Council own the kiosks?
No. We just rent a ‘channel’ on them. The kiosks are owned and operated by a company called Cityspace.

How do I report that a kiosk isn’t working?
Please email details, including location, to open@cityspace.com.

How do I report a kiosk that is in a dangerous state and could injure someone?
Please phone 0870 850 4223 with details, including location.

How do I report a kiosk that has offensive graffiti on it?
Please phone 0870 850 4223 with details, including location.

Who do I contact to get my organisation’s information or services onto the kiosks?

Kiosk usage

i+ Points attracted around 17 users each day on average.  That’s about 330,000 users across Tyne & Wear in a year.

Usage was considerably higher when schools are on holiday or during major events such as the Great North Run.   Adding ‘Open:tyne&wear’ beyond just the local Council services led to around quarter of a million extra customer contacts across our network in its first year.

An on-kiosks poll showed that more than two thirds of kiosks users had never visited their Council’s website.