A place in between tip-up seats (7)

I believe the answer is:

staines

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'seats' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'a place in between tip-up' is the wordplay.
'a place in' becomes 'taine' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'between' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tip' suggests removing the centre (I've seen 'tips of' mean this).
'up' becomes 'skywards'.
'skywards' with its middle removed is 'ss'.
'taine' placed inside 'ss' is 'STAINES'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for staines that I've seen before include "Town SW of Heathrow" , "Surrey town on Thames" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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