A programme of essential maintenance, costing around £1.4m and lasting 36 weeks, is to start at the Parkway multi-storey car park in Bury St Edmunds early next month.
Up to 200 spaces – a third of the car parking spaces in the multi-storey - may be out of use during the maintenance work which is due to start on 5 September. The Council is reinvesting parking income to fund the works which includes repairs to the concrete structure as well as improvements that will benefit users of the carpark including colour coding of parking levels and of the pedestrian walkways.
The repair work is required in order to keep this car park in use for the years ahead.
The multi-storey, built in the early 1990s, is currently used as both a long and short stay car park. During the works, West Suffolk Council will make the neighbouring short stay Parkway Surface car park available for both short and all day parking.
The 36-week maintenance programme includes within it a six week break on the works. All spaces will be back in use during this break, from 21 November to 31 December 2022, to ensure there is capacity to meet extra demand on parking spaces in the run up to Christmas.
Cllr Peter Stevens, Cabinet member for Operations at West Suffolk Council said: “We recognise how important parking is and the role that it plays in supporting the town centre economy through the availability of both long stay and short stay spaces. We are reinvesting parking income to deliver this estimated £1.4m of essential works that will ensure the multi-storey car park can continue to be used by people coming to work in or visit Bury St Edmunds town centre, for many more years to come. While the repairs are essential, we will also use the opportunity this brings to make improvements that will benefit users of this car park.”
Residents and visitors are advised that the works will be noisy, particularly as concrete is removed to carry out structural repairs. While this is unavoidable, this will be restricted to daytime hours Monday to Friday. Measures will also be in place to control the dust generated.
Advanced warning signs will be going out in the coming weeks, while the Council is formally advertising the Traffic Regulation Order to make Parkway Surface available to long as well as short stay users during the period of work on the multi-storey.
West Suffolk Council manages over 30 car parks across the district including over 3,000 spaces in Bury St Edmunds town centre.
Details of its car parks in the town centre, including short, long, and flexible parking tariffs can be found at Bury St Edmunds car parks (westsuffolk.gov.uk)
Council
