Council urged to take over closed NCP car parks

Leicester City Council has been urged to step in and take over the running of closed NCP city centre car parks.

Car parks in Lee Circle, Rutland Street, Abbey Street and East Street closed permanently on Friday after NCP went into administration.

Green Party city councillor Patrick Kitterick said the closures of the car parks, which have 2,400 spaces in total, were a "cliff edge loss of parking that has to be taken seriously" and has asked Labour city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby to take action.

Soulsby said the council had spoken to three of the four owners of the sites, which were leased by NCP, about whether they would be able to secure new operators.

However, he said the NCP sites were poorly-used and he would not be keen to take on "loss making enterprises".

Kitterick said the council should look at taking on the Abbey Street, Rutland Centre and East Street sites.

Soulsby told the BBC: "The car parks are not owned by NCP but by separate entities who have been left with them as liabilities.

"We have had preliminary discussions with them and its early days to say whether there is any prospect of us or anyone else taking them over.

"At least one of the operators was quite optimistic about finding a new operator.

"However, I can understand why NCP were failing to balance the books with them.

"The level of usage across the four of them was under 25% in total.

"That doesn't sound like a viable operation and I'd be reluctant to make a commitment to take on a loss-making enterprise."

Soulsby also said the city centre was well served with alternative parking to the NCPs.

However he acknowledged the Rutland Centre closure would have an impact on nearby businesses in the city's cultural centre, including Curve theatre.

Kitterick said there would be many employees in the city who would lose contract parking, at least in the short term, because of the closures.

"We have a system where people are facing a real emergency.

"Surely there has to be an opportunity [for the council] to consolidate the parking primarily on the Rutland Centre, with potentially East Street and get them open again because they are absolutely crucial to our cultural quarter."

Kitterick said the council had "massive expertise" in running car parks.

"I worry we are missing the fact that the loss of these car parks will have a damaging effect."

Liberal Democrat city councillor Zuffar Haq said he had called for a special emergency council meeting to discuss the NCP closures.

The council said there was spare capacity of more than 2,500 spaces in the remaining NCP car parks, its own city centre multi-storeys, and Highcross car parks.

It said, in total, there were more than 10,000 on and off-street spaces in the city centre even after the NCP closures.

The council said traffic management plans were in place should queuing occur at the city centre multi-storey car parks and that the area traffic control team would be monitoring traffic flows.

Curve has published details of alternative parking options on social media, where some people have said the loss of nearby parking would particularly affect disabled audience members.

The Leicester closures are among 22 NCP sites shutting nationwide, according to administrators PwC.

A spokesperson said: "Regrettably, due to the closure of these sites, 33 employees will be made redundant on 31 March.

"The other 318 NCP car parks remain open and there are no further sites identified for closure at this time."

The NCP car park at the Britannia Shopping Centre in Hinckley was also among the 22 sites earmarked for closure.

However the Hinckley Business Improvement District group said the site would remain open and free to use after NCP relinquished its management, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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