Q. Why have you made the decision to close the car park on 12 February?

A. As you will be aware, the Council has been closely monitoring the structure of the building for several years. Parts of the facility were sealed off in 2019 and more recently there have been ongoing issues of severe anti-social behaviour culminating in growing concerns about health and safety to the public and the ongoing costs of maintenance and repair.

The emergency decision to close the car park was made in December, and Councillors will consider a report on the demolition of the car park at their February meeting.

Q. Where do I park once it closes?

A. Please see Leamington Spa car parks for parking in the area.

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Season tickets or residential permits

Q. My residential permit entitles me to 24/7 usage in a car park, will I be able to park all day on the surface car park once the multi-storey closes? 

A. Our preparation for closure has been to reduce the impact of the loss of the car park and minimise any disruption to residents, businesses, and visitors.  It is for this reason that we will have to limit the use of the short stay surface car park to between 5pm and 9am each day for permit holders, to manage the availability for retail/visitor use in the daytime hours. 

The option to park in this car park in the evening was offered to Residential Permit holders as additional to the existing arrangement that we hope will be of benefit for the time being.

Q. I have a “The Space” resident permit for Covent Garden multi-storey car park, where will my permit work after closure?

A. Your permit will remain valid until its expiry date and can be used in the following car parks:

• Covent Garden Surface car park, CV32 5QB – evenings from 5pm until 9am
• St Peter’s multi-storey car park, CV32 5EL – 7 days a week, 24 hour a day
• Adelaide Bridge car park, CV32 5AH – 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
• Upper Grove Street car park, CV32 5AN – 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
• Riverside House car park, CV32 5HZ – Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 7.30pm. Please note that this car park is locked every evening and is not available Saturday or Sunday

Q. I have a season ticket for Covent Garden multi-storey car park, after closure of Covent Garden multi-storey?

A. Your season ticket will remain valid until its expiry date and can be used in the following car parks:

• St Peter’s multi-storey car park, CV32 5EL – 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
• Adelaide Bridge car park, CV32 5AH – 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
• Upper Grove Street car park, CV32 5AN – 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
• Riverside House car park, CV32 5HZ - Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 7.30pm. Please note that this car park is locked every evening and is not available Saturday or Sunday

Q. What happens when my residential permit/season ticket expires, will I be able to renew it? 

A. No, but you can purchase a new one at another car park of your choice.

Q. Can I get my money back on my permit if there’s any time left on it when the car park closes?

A. Yes, if there are whole calendar months remaining.

Q. Where will I park now for work – I need a long-stay car park?

A. You can find a list of alternative car parks here: Leamington Spa car parks.

Q. Where will I park now when I’m popping to the shops?  I only need a quick stop for an hour or so.

A. You can find a list of other car parks in town here: Leamington Spa car parks.

Q. What is happening to the surface level car park at Covent Garden?

A. This car park will remain open.

The Covent Garden site

Q. What are you going to replace Covent Garden car park with?

A. Councillors will consider a recommendation for the demolition of the car park at their February Cabinet meeting, and then a feasibility study will investigate the options for developing a community focused “hub” on the site.

Q. Will there be a new multi-storey car park?

A. It is likely there will be some car parking, but we don’t know what this will look like until we have the results of the feasibility study.

Anti-social Behaviour (ASB)

Q. What have we done to stop the ASB, the press release says it has been a growing concern?

A. Partnership working with our Safer Neighbourhood Team, CCTV, the Police, the Ranger Service, P3 and other organisations are addressing this escalating problem. School engagement initiatives, warnings, rough sleeper support and some arrests have all been undertaken. The CCTV will continue to operate on the site, even after the multi-storey car park has closed.

Q. How will you prevent the ASB simply moving to your other Multi-storey car park?

A. The above partnership work will continue to monitor this situation.

Structural 

Q. A few years ago it was 'Concrete Cancer,' what has changed now?

A. More recent and more detailed investigations have revealed structural concerns – the top 2 tiers have been closed off for 4 years now. That combined with the rise in anti-social behaviour has resulted in the emergency decision to close the car park.

Other FAQs

Q. We are losing 36 parent and child bays, are there any more in the town centre car parks?

A. St Peters multi-storey car park has 6 mobility/parent and child spaces on the external ground floor level at the rear. It is not something we generally have in our surface off-street car parks, usually we allocate a proportion of mobility bays with wider bays. All blue badged customer parking is free in WDC off-street car parks.

Q. Do you think the number of people using the car park has reduced when it became card payment only? 

A. Since Covid, cashless payments have become a more popular way of paying for most things, not just parking and we have responded to that.

Riverside House Office closure

Q. Is the closure of this car park linked to your move out of Riverside House, as it was previously?

A. No, they are two separate projects this time around.