The £11 million multi-storey car park in Crewe has now re-opened after being closed for emergency repairs following an attack by vandals, writes Belinda Ryan.
Cheshire East Council was forced to keep the town centre car park closed yesterday (Monday) after the exit shutters were vandalised over the weekend by yobs.
The damage has now been repaired and it is fully open today.
Two weeks ago the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed the 390-space car park was bringing in just £75 a day in parking charges – and that is before operational costs are taken into account.
It was also revealed the cash-strapped council cannot afford to open it seven days a week.
The car park, which has only been open since the end of July, was closed after being targeted by vandals over the weekend.
A Cheshire East Council spokesperson told the LDRS on Monday: “The Crewe town centre car park is currently closed due to the exit shutters being vandalised over the weekend.
“Third party contractors are currently on-site assessing the extent of the damage caused.
“We hope to reopen the car park as soon as possible.”
The car park has been plagued by problems dating back to when construction first began.
It should have been open to public by the end of 2023 but construction was stopped for a period of time following an incident in June 2023 when a worker was taken to hospital with a minor injury.
The council then announced it would be open by the end of May this – but that didn’t happen because of technical issue which required specialist contractors to resolve.
This car park should have never been built. The cost of 11 million pounds plus its revenue costs and in return in generates £75.00 per day. An organisation has to be totally incompetent. I challenge Cheshire East to publish their original business plan when this project was being considered.
To my knowledge there has never been a shortage of car parking space in Crewe.
Yet again no Counsellor, Director, Executive or Senior Manager will be held responsible or accountable for this total failure.
In reality it is beyond belief.
The Council should publish the revenue costs of this car park, salaries, national insurance, pension, maintenance and repairs of this liability they chose to have built.
As a member of public i despair at their incompetence. It is not surprising the public sector is always complaining they need more money. Simply stop the waste.
So I take it the shutters which are there as a security measure are not fit for purpose if they are easily vandalised, take it our forward thinking council did not install any CCTV to monitor its large investment in the empty space storage facility that is as pointless as the people who thought that Crewe required more parking.
Is there any accountability for council decisions? There are so many incompetents making such poor choices that we come to accept it, but does anyone actually go back to the decision-makers and say “you got that wrong”?
Crewe has gone from being a thriving, if mediocre, town to an only-if-absolutely-necessary destination.