More than third of city’s off-street parking to be scrapped, says council
Councillors say land should be used for ‘public housing and green infrastructure’
MANCHESTER council’s new transport strategy predicts around 12,500 car parking spaces will be lost in the coming years due to re-development.
There are currently around 30,000 off-street car parking spaces in Manchester city centre, many of them run by private companies such as Euro Car Parks, APCOA, NCP, Citipark, Q-Park and SIP.
Many of the cheaper car parks on the outskirts of the city centre have already been replaced by blocks of flats and offices.
And the trend looks set to continue as development continues, particularly in the area around Piccadilly station when HS2 arrives.
The biggest question mark is over the future of parking run by Manchester city council itself. In 1999, the authority entered into the country’s first public-private partnership, setting up a Joint Venture with NCP called NCP Manchester Ltd (NML).
This company runs 43 car parks with an estimated 15,000 spaces across Manchester, including 13 that are in the city centre.
The idea of the joint venture was to give the council the benefit of an experienced operator running the car parks, while allowing it flexibility to deliver its own transport strategy.
It is also lucrative for the council’s coffers and thought to be worth around £3-4million in profit.
However, the 20-year contract with NCP came to an end in June last year with no agreement in place
for what the council would like to do next.
The council’s executive committee decided to agree an 18-month extension to the current contract while assessing its options for a new agreement.
The extension is due up in December and the council’s new transport strategy says this presents ‘an opportunity’.
Some city centre councillors would like to see the authority walk away from its arrangement with NCP and move control of car parks in house.
Sam Wheeler, Jon-Connor Lyons and Adele Douglas, Labour councillors for the Piccadilly ward, said they would like to see the council use the land ‘for social good’ such as social housing or community green spaces.
And their number one target is the multi-storey car park on Church Street in the Northern Quarter.
“Council land in the city centre currently used for car parks should be used for social good, particularly public housing and blue-green infrastructure,” the councillors said.
“We’re glad a review of this is included and we would begin with the demolition of the Church Street multi-storey. Parking in the city centre should be reserved for those in genuine need.”
At this point, it is not clear what the council is planning to do. When the 18-month extension with NCP was agreed, officers also asked for the option ‘for the new agreement to be extended for further six month periods on a rolling basis if this is necessary to complete the review of the future strategy for surface and multi-storey car parks.’
NCP declined to comment.
On Wednesday, as the new Manchester City Centre Transport Strategy launched for consultation, the town hall’s executive member for the Environment, Planning and Transport, Councillor Angeliki Stogia, talked of the calls to make the city centre cleaner, greener and more pedestrian and cyclist friendly.
“As Manchester continues on the road to recovery from the pandemic and plans for growing numbers of city centre jobs and homes, more than ever, a strategy is required to guide the future of transport in the region’s capital,” she said.
“This ambitious strategy envisions a well-connected, zero-carbon city centre at the heart of the North, offering residents, workers and visitors a great place to live, work and visit.”