It’s still not clear what will happen to the buildings, which only had about 25 percent average occupancy
11:38, 03 Apr 2026Updated 11:47, 03 Apr 2026
The Rutland Centre NCP car park near to the Curve theatre is one of several Leicester sites that shut(Image: Dylan Hayward)
The city centre car parks that closed with the collapse of company NCP will not be re-opened using taxpayers’ money, Leicester’s city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has said.
Four Leicester car parks closed on Friday, March 27 – the Rutland Centre car park near the Curve theatre and car parks at Lee Circle, Abbey Street, and East Street. The Britannia Centre car park in Hinckley also closed the same day.
But the city council will not be taking the Leicester car parks on. As well as the poor state of repair of some of the car parks, a further concern for Leicester City Council is that they were only about a quarter full, on average.
And the city council has also said that it was not too worried about the loss of 1,200 spaces putting off visitors with all the alternative spaces available.
The city’s East Street car park, which is now surrounded by vacant office buildings(Image: Google)
One of the reasons NCP cited for going under was the drop in car park use since the Covid-19 pandemic when many office workers switched to working from home.
The East Street car park was used by office workers in the nearby buildings, several of which are now vacant.
Addressing why taking over any of the car parks would be bad for taxpayers, Sir Peter said: “Anyone who has used these car parks will know that they require significant work to upgrade them, which would require huge financial investment.
“They have also been very poorly used with an average occupancy of around 25 percent across all four.
“That doesn’t sound like a viable operation and it wouldn’t make sense for the council to take on a loss-making enterprise.”
Lee Circle car park is among the NCP sites that have closed(Image: Mike Sewell)
The city council has been offering non-financial support to the landlords of the four buildings but the council has stressed that it has no obligations to get involved.
A council spokesman said: “The city council has no contractual obligations for any of the four NCP car parks but we have offered our support to the various owners of the buildings as they determine what their next steps will be.
“The council currently has no plans to acquire the sites, or to operate them, as this would not be a prudent use of taxpayer’s money.”
The Abbey Street NCP car park(Image: Google Street View)
The council has previously said that, despite the closure of four large NCP car parks, the centre of Leicester still has more than 10,000 spaces, with more than 9,000 car park spaces and a further 1,300 on-street parking bays.
The city also has a Park & Ride service, with car parks in Birstall, Enderby and at Meynell’s Gorse in Braunstone Frith.
The parking is free all day, with buses running every 15 minutes from 7am to 7pm, costing £4.85 for a single passenger or £6 for up to five people arriving in one car.