Council can’t afford to open new car park

We keep saying you couldn’t make it up – then the clowns at Cheshire East Circus go one better.

In July, Crewe’s new 390-space town centre car park opened – but it now has to close on Sundays –because the council can’t afford to pay the operating costs!

The car park cost Cheshire East council-tax payers (that’s us) £11 million – on top of the multi-millions that our councillors had already allocated to Crewe.

Cllr Mark Goldsmith (Ind), chair of Cheshire East Council’s highways and transport committee, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “There is no plan in the short-term future to open the Crewe multi-storey car park on a Sunday, as there is car parking available elsewhere in Crewe’s town centre.

“Unlike our surface level car parks, the multi-storey in Crewe requires staffing and, given the financial position the council is in at the moment, it would not be sensible to be adding further cost to the operation of one of our car parks.”

So there you have it – no-one appears to have the common sense to work out what the car park would cost to keep open seven days a week.

The car park was planned as part of a regeneration scheme which was to have seen Crewe town centre transformed – instead the whole town resembles one huge building site.

Originally there were plans for a new eight-screen cinema, gym, restaurants, shops and a new bus station. The result has seen the demolition of many of the existing independent shops and business premises – but nothing has yet replaced them.

Conservative group leader Janet Clowes told the LDRS, while costs must be minimised for the council at the current time, ‘I think, like most people, we had thought that once the multi-storey car park was open it would be open seven days a week’.

She added: “I’m unaware that these opening hours were arranged or organised through any highways and transport committee meeting.”

Can things get any worse at CEC – that’s Cheshire East Circus by the way?