Council confirms Northampton car park could be bulldozed because 50-year-old landmark is getting too costly to maintain

Councillors have confirmed a review is under way that could see Northampton’s Mayorhold car park flattened.

Proposals in West Northamptonshire’s draft budget revealed the multi-storey is “significantly under-utilised” and maintaining the 50-year-old landmark is becoming such an issue that closing the Mayorhold could lead to “reduced costs and therefore greater efficiency of the council's resources”. A full report into options of what to do with the site is due to go before council’s cabinet early in 2023.

The Mayorhold was built in 1973 with 1,000 spaces but usage has not returned to pre-Covid levels and the council’s draft budget estimates a £1.6 million shortfall in income from car parking across the area next year with spare capacity elsewhere around the town.

Councillor Phil Larratt, the council’s cabinet member for environment, transport and highways, said: “Mayorhold is ageing and in poor condition and although these issues are currently being managed, eventually the car park will need major work or replacement.

“Due to the significant costs in keeping this facility open we are in the process of considering its future. As part of this process, we will be ensuring that future demand for parking is taken into account and that there is appropriate parking available which meets the needs of all town centre visitors.

“We are still assessing all the information prior to presenting a report to cabinet which will provide options on a way forward.”

Demolishing the Mayorhold could threaten leaving another empty swathe of land close to the town centre just yards away from the former Greyfriars bus station which was demolished in March 2015, although it could simply be turned into a ground-level car park.

Plans to develop the four-acre Greyfriars site with a cinema multiplex, flats and restaurants fell through in 2017 and an independent surveyors’ report in 2019 told the council it would need to spend upwards of £10 million to make it attractive enough to developers.

Leader of the then Northampton Borough Council, Jonathan Nunn, admitted the Greyfriars site is too isolated from the rest of the town and the report strengthened the council's will to create new walkthroughs from the Market Square or Abington Street.

Submissions by Northampton Forward to the Government’s Future High Streets programme also in 2019 had visions of a linear park with modern apartment blocks creating part of an ‘Eastgate Residential Quarter’ between Greyfriars and Abington Street by utilising the former Marks & Spencer site.

But plans for the town centre revealed earlier this year focused on demolishing the old M&S and BHS stores to make way for 342 town centre flats above a number of small retail and leisure units, although work would not start until 2025 and take seven years to complete.

Other projects mentioned included a Marefair Heritage Gateway project linking the train station with the town centre, Four Waterside — a mix of residential, office and hotel space opposite the railway — and Emporium Way the walkway which connects the Market Square to the Greyfriars site.

Proposals to close the Mayorhold were revealed in the council’s draft budget for 2023-24, which also included plans to hike car park charges in the town centre and scrap free parking for shoppers at weekends.