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New £11m car park brought in £75 a day

BBC Councillor Laura Crane of Cheshire East CouncilBBC
Councillor Laura Crane of Cheshire East Council says she expects more use of the car park as other sites close for regeneration projects

An £11m car park in a Cheshire town centre brought in just £75 a day during its first two months of operation.

The 390-space multi-storey car park opened in Crewe town centre in July.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said £3,600 in revenue was raised in the first two months - which equates to £450 a week, or £75 a day for the six days a week the site is open.

A Cheshire East councillor said she had “confidence” that more people would use the car park and that it would be “worth its weight in gold”.

A view of the empty site in Crewe town centre that has been saved for the second phase of the Royal Arcade development. It is flat, undeveloped land with weeds poking out, surrounded by old brick buildings in the background
A second phase of the development was set to include a cinema and restaurants but has been scaled back

The car park was originally due to open by the end of 2023 but was delayed.

In its first two months of opening, 3,235 vehicles used it.

The council has not provided the costs of running the car park, which is open Monday to Saturday.

The five-storey car park was due to be part of a larger regeneration scheme in Crewe, but that was scaled back last year.

A new bus station which was also part of the project opened earlier this year.

The council blamed rising inflation and the impact of the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 for the scaling back of the plans.

An exterior view of the multi-storey car park in Crewe
The car park has 390 spaces

Crewe’s Royal Arcade development

  • Developers unveiled plans for the site in 2006 which fell through in 2009 after one of the companies working on it went out of business
  • Cheshire East Council bought the site for £6m in 2015
  • Originally it was planned in two phases, the first being a bus station and multi-storey car park, followed by a second phase of a cinema, shops and restaurants
  • Work started in April 2022
  • In November 2023, the council voted to scale back plans for the second phase and look into temporary uses for the site
  • The new bus station opened in May 2024, before the car park in July.
A view of empty spaces on the top floor of the car park, surrounded by a high metal mesh fence.
The car park is across five floors

Councillor Laura Crane, vice-chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, said people should not forget the scheme was originally part of a bigger project.

“This wasn’t a standalone subject - the car park and the bus station needed to come first.

“If we’d have brought in the developments around it before them, we’d have had the opposite issue of not having enough spaces available so I really think it's going to be worth its weight in gold in the end.”

She added that people needed to “look to the future” because many of the surface car parks would be used for regeneration projects.

“I’ve got confidence that we’ll better utilise this car park over time as new facilities come into the town centre and other car parks close,” she said.

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