Catalogue of car-park cock-ups for CEC

A catalogue of delays in opening the new £11m multi-storey car park has left Crewe short of 218 parking spaces

The 390-space car park in the town centre has been plagued with issues since construction began.

It should have opened at the end of 2023 but construction was stopped following a work-place accident.

The council then announced it should be open by the end of May 2024 – but that date came and went.

Meanwhile Crewe lost its 89-space Civic Centre car park, closed in December, so Crewe library could be bulldozed.

On Monday of this week the 129-space long stay Oak Street car park was permanently closed.

Originally it had been planned that the new multi-storey would be open to take the cars from both these locations.

At present 218 parking spaces have been lost with no other town centre spaces available.

The only saving grace is that despite the millions Cheshire East Council has lavished on Crewe visitors have not been in evidence – probably due to the whole town resembling one enormous building site

Cllr Nick Mannion (Lab), vice chair of Cheshire East Council’s Economy and Growth Committee, said: “The delay in opening the multi-storey car park is because of a technical issue identified during final checks at the facility – which requires specialist contractors to resolve.

“While this is of course regrettable, our priority is ensuring that all systems are fully-tested and working to our satisfaction before the car park is opened to the public.

Cllr Mannion added: “Oak Street car park was closed as of Monday 8 July so that construction work on a fantastic new state-of-the-art space for young people can progress.