Study ranks Northampton on list of 'hardest places in UK to park your car'

A study has claimed Northampton is one of the hardest towns in the UK to find a parking space.

In every vehicle in the borough were to set out and try and find a spot in town centre, there would be 20 cars vying for each single parking space.

In fact, the research by All Car Leasing claims the borough has 112,000 registered cars in its driveways and just 5,510 public parking spaces to accommodate them all.

It places Northampton as the number eighth hardest town centre to park up behind London at number seven.

Birmingham ranked number one, with 50 cars at a time vying for each parking space.

Northampton Borough Council operates 20 managed car parks in and around town centre offering 4,300 parking spaces between them.

However, the research does not delve into how much of the 'public parking spaces' are spread among Northampton's town centre residential streets, such as crammed neighbourhoods Delapre and the Mounts.

It is also not specified if the research included private car parks such as the NCP car park off St Peter's Way.

Meanwhile, earlier this month the borough council forecast that the loss of income from its car parks during the coronavirus pandemic could total £1.3million.

Chief finance officer Stuart McGregor warned he did not anticipate that income from car parks will return to pre-Covid-19 levels "for the rest of the year".

It is understood the Government will be offering grants to councils to offset the loss of income from car parks.

Northamptonshire County Council made on-street parking free for several months during the coronavirus pandemic.