LEICESTER’S Haymarket and Newarke Street car parks have been awarded a national Park Safe award in recognition of the high standards of safe and secure parking provided there.
The award is part of the Safer Parking Scheme - a national standard for UK car parks that have low crime and measures in place to ensure the safety of people and vehicles.
Each car park undergoes a rigorous assessment by specially trained police assessors and the Park Mark is only awarded to car parks that achieve the challenging standards.
Both Haymarket and Newarke Street were marked on factors such as proper management, maintenance, surveillance, lighting, signage and cleanliness.
The purpose of the Safer Parking Scheme is to give guidance to car park operators on how to meet high standards to create a safe, secure environment, in turn reducing crime and the fear of crime within car parks.
It also provides a design framework for architects and developers of new parking facilities.
Newarke Street Car Park and Haymarket Car Park were both assessed in July 2023 and subsequently awarded the Park Mark Award, which is initially granted for one year.
Leicester deputy city mayor for climate, economy and culture, Cllr Adam Clarke, said: “A lot of hard work has gone into ensuring our car parks are clean, welcoming places which people feel safe using, so I’m very pleased that Haymarket and Newarke Street have both been awarded the Park Mark Award.
“We are already working towards achieving this standard for all our car parks, so people using them can be sure they all meet the same high standards.”
Haymarket shopping centre manager Dean Cross added: “We are delighted that Haymarket car park has been awarded the Park Mark award. It is so important to our customers to have somewhere clean, safe and convenient to park when they come shopping at Haymarket.
“Congratulations to all the team who have contributed.”
The Park Safe Awards follow on from a series of investments and improvements to the city’s multi-storey car parks.
Earlier this year, a £267,000 scheme saw around 360 sqm of solar panels installed on the roof of Newarke Street car park, to provide renewable energy to power the machines, lights, cameras and other facilities at the car park, as well as other local buildings.
The scheme was funded jointly by city council and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and followed the council’s successful bid for more than £4million of match-funding from the ERDF to support a range of projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The car park was also given an overhaul in 2019 with the installation of ANPR cameras, new payment stations, better lighting and improved CCTV coverage.
For details of all parking in Leicester visit the city council’s website here.
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IMAGE: Pictured (l-r) are city council transport facilities manager Luke Moore, Deputy City Mayor Cllr Adam Clarke, city senior car park attendant Veronica Harper, Steve Day of Leicestershire Police, Matthew Robinson of the British Parking Association and Haymarket Shopping Centre operations manager Brendan Whitmore.