Council takes over NCP car park in Park Mall

Ashford Borough Council has taken ownership of the former NCP car park at Park Mall shopping centre in Ashford Town Centre, and have announced it will become one of their portfolio of town centre car parks, meaning residents will not have to pay as much to use it.

This follows on from the announcement last week that NCP has decided that it no longer wishes to run its car park operation at Park Mall, owing to a wider company financial restructuring, where it is relinquishing a number of its car parking operations nationally.

The Council negotiated with the former operator last week and has successfully completed a deal to take over the ownership and future operation of the car park.

It will remain closed initially while necessary repair works are carried out to address the problems experienced by some of our tenants in Park Mall. Once completed, the car park will be re-open again for public use.

Cllr. Nathan Iliffe, portfolio holder for regeneration and corporate property at Ashford Borough Council, said: “The council is pleased to be able to secure this important town centre site and popular car park.

“Under our operation, car-parking charges at Park Mall will be reduced in line with charges at our other operated car parks. This will provide better value and expanded car-parking options for Ashford residents and visitors to our town centre, as well as maintaining, and hopefully, increasing footfall to businesses in Park Mall.

In the meantime, the adjacent Edinburgh Road Multi Storey car park will be available for those patrons who previously used the NCP car park, until it has been repaired and re-opened to the public as a council car park.

Other car parks in Ashford

The Council also operates several other car parks in the town centre, at Vicarage Lane, Station Road, Flour Mills, Dover Place, Elwick Road and Elwick Place. In addition, we also offer free parking at certain times, full details of our tariffs can be found on our website.

Ashford Borough Council purchased its leasehold interest in the Park Mall Shopping Centre in June 2015.

The council grasped the opportunity to breathe new life into the town centre and turned Park Mall’s fortunes around by filling it with independent retailers and rejuvenating the area by putting on events and making it a destination.

By owning Park Mall shopping centre, it brings it into local ownership, creates an asset and income stream for the council, and enables us to develop and influence the town centre fortunes in the coming years.