A nine-month long programme of major repairs and improvements to Parkway multi-storey car park has been completed, allowing it to fully reopen again.
Up to 200 spaces were out of action at the Bury St Edmunds car park during the work which also led to a series of evening closures.
The work included repairs to the concrete structure that were necessary to keep the car park in use for years to come.
Alongside this West Suffolk Council has also made improvements including brightening the structure and colour coding parking bays and walkways.
The programme of vital repairs to the town centre car park cost £1.4m with most of the funding coming through the reinvestment of car parking income.
Work to repaint the flooring of the stairwell in the multi-storey will take place out of hours over the next month.
The council is also awaiting tenders for work to improve the lighting in the building. Subject to tender costs, it wants to replace the lighting on the parking levels, stairwells and emergency lighting, with new Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
The new LEDs will include motion sensors that will come on when a vehicle or person approaches and then go off when there’s no movement. That in turn will not only improve their energy efficiency helping the environment, but also deliver savings to the council so that they cost less to the taxpayer.
While it is hoped that these works can take place ahead of the autumn, the parking levels are expected to remain open.
Since April, the council has also made two levels of the car park available Monday to Friday, exclusively to hospital workers from the West Suffolk Foundation Trust through a permit scheme. The trust runs a shuttlebus to take staff to and from the hospital.
Cllr Diane Hind, the new Cabinet member for Resources and Property at West Suffolk Council said: “We are delighted that these major works, which has been delivered on time and on budget, are now finished. These repairs were vital to ensuring the car park’s operation for many years to come and hopefully town centre workers, shoppers and other users will find the car park better to use and cleaner as a result of the improvements made. We hope there will be more improvements to follow with smarter lighting which will be better for the environment and a better use of tax payers money in the savings it delivers to the council.”
Cllr David Taylor, the new Cabinet member for Operations at West Suffolk Council said: “Car parking and transport are important to the health of our town centres. We were up to 200 parking spaces down during the peak of this works so we are pleased to have these back and in turn to be able to support our local NHS Trust.
“We also recognise that these works, did cause some disruption, so on behalf of the council, I would like to thank all residents and businesses in the area for bearing with us while this major programme of repairs and improvements was carried out. The results are a better car park and subject to tenders, we look forward to seeing the upgrades to the lighting carried out over the coming weeks.”
Mark Cordell, chief executive of Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District which represents the town centre businesses, said: “It’s great that these works are now completed and the car park is fully reopen again. I very much welcome this town centre investment. We just had a very successful spring fayre and we have lots of interest in the town including the opening of the new Primark store to look forward to.”
The completion of the work also means that Parkway Surface car park will return to short stay. Due to the changes required to machines, RingGo, and giving people fair warning, this change will be implemented on Monday 31 July.