One car remains abandoned in Northampton's largest car park as council yet to reach decision on reopening
Just one car remains locked inside Northampton’s Mayorhold more than eight weeks after the huge car park closed.
The town’s largest car parks was closed by West Northants Council (WNC) ‘until further notice’ on July 20 with ongoing concerns over the safety of the multi-storey building.
The emergency closure was to ‘prioritise public safety following instances of crumbling concrete on one of the internal posts’, according to WNC.
No prior warning was given to people that the Lady’s Lane site would be closing with immediate effect meaning that many cars were locked inside with access only available by permission of the council.
The majority of those vehicles have now been retrieved – except one which remains locked inside.
A spokesperson for West Northants Council told the Chron: “Following a further collection this week, one vehicle remains on site.”
With the car park more than 50 years old, it is earmarked to be demolished next year as part of the wider Greyfriars regeneration programme with WNC now considering its short term future.
A spokesperson continued: “Once a decision on the future of Mayorhold car park has been reached, we will issue a further update.”
WNC said there was ‘ample’ parking across town including the 464-space St Michael's and 810-space Grosvenor Centre multi-storey car parks to accommodate the shortfall of losing 1,073 spaces in Mayorhold.
Meanwhile hundreds more spaces have been lost with the part closure of the Upper Mounts Car Park which is undergoing archaeological trenching and site investigations.
Around 160 of Upper Mounts' 310 spaces will be temporarily unavailable, while a further 36 spaces at the nearby Newlands Car Park will also be affected by survey work. The investigations are expected to take up to two months and are being undertaken ahead of the submission of a hybrid planning application for the Greyfriars regeneration scheme.
WNC said temporary signage has been installed to direct motorists, although the Chron spotted that the live signs to advertise the number of spaces in town were still showing as open with 800 available for the Mayorhold.
A spokesperson said: “Signage across the town was updated immediately following the decision to temporarily close Mayorhold car park.
"We apologise for the confusion if any signs have displayed anything other than ‘closed’ for the car park since then.”
Greyfriars is described by the council as the largest brownfield regeneration opportunity in Northampton and is being delivered in partnership with ECF.
The wider 25-acre regeneration scheme is expected to eventually deliver more than 1,000 homes alongside commercial, community, cultural and leisure spaces, new parks and improved public areas.
The first phase is expected to include more than 100 homes on the current Upper Mounts and Newlands car park sites, including townhouses, maisonettes and apartments centred around a community garden.