City officials are tweaking the offer at the 1,500 space site to make it safer and more appealing
Mount Pleasant Car Park Liverpool(Image: Liverpool Echo)
A significant overhaul is proposed of one of Liverpool’s major council owned car parks in a bid to encourage users back to it. Charges are to be amended and upgrades made to Mount Pleasant car park in the city centre in response to feedback from drivers.
Andy Mollon, the city’s director of transport and highways, admitted while it may be one of the cheaper sites owned by the city council, it’s “probably not one of the most aesthetically pleasing.” As a result “major investment” is being planned for the 1,500 space car park on Brownlow Hill.
Alongside that, a new night time tariff is being introduced to make parking cheaper for evening workers. There are hopes this could be implemented as soon as this summer.
Addressing the local authority’s finance and resources scrutiny committee, Mr Mollon said: “Mount Pleasant is obviously one of the cheaper car parks but it’s probably not one of the most aesthetically pleasing ones. I’m in the throes of making arrangements to vastly improve that car park.
“We’ve already started in terms of removing graffiti from the outside. We are now looking at major investment inside, so improving the lighting, increasing CCTV coverage within the car park, substantially increasing the visibility and aesthetic of the stairwells, improving the road markings within the car parks and also increasing the number of disabled bays within that car park.”
The Mount Pleasant Car Park seen from Brownlow Hill
At present there are only 37 disabled parking spaces among the 1,535 available. Mr Mollon confirmed the existing day time fee would remain the same between 6am and 6pm, priced at £6 for over three hours.
The following 12 hours would be set at half the price – £3. A stay of up to three hours is currently priced at £4.50.
This will increase to £4.90 from April 1 as part of a wider review of fees and charges city wide. It represents a rise of 8%.
Liverpool City Council car park, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool City Centre.
Mr Mollon added: “That was in light of the low paid night time economy workers to try and address their concerns in line with the safety concerns of the car parks. That is being implemented as we speak now and the improvements to the car park will hopefully be completed in time for the summer.”
Lifts are still unavailable at the car park as it stands. Pedestrian access is via level one and level five on Brownlow Hill.
As part of further changes, Cllr Ruth Bennett, cabinet member for finance and resources, said in response to workers in the night time economy, tariffs around Victoria Street could also be “tweaked” that would assist low paid workers.
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