Big changes to Coventry car parks ahead of huge development

[dutchman]

Hundreds of parking spaces will go as work on City Centre South starts



A Coventry car park will re-open to the public for the first time in almost four years. But two other parking areas with more spaces are set to be closed permanently by the end of the month.

Whitefriars Street car park will be re-opened by the council as a long stay pay & display facility, according to a recent public notice. The site near Coventry University has 115 spaces.

The council closed the parking area in January 2021, as the pandemic led to a "financially unsustainable" rise in empty spaces in car parks across the city. Coventry council confirmed this week the car park will be re-opening on a "temporary basis."

They say it's "hoped to be open early next year but may be sooner." A re-opening date on the public notice indicates it could be as early as Monday 25 November.

But the council also revealed it is re-opening the facility to reduce the impact of closing the Barracks car park in the city centre. The huge 460-space multistorey parking lot is set to be bulldozed for the City Centre South scheme.

The council's website reveals it will be closing the car park permanently on 24 November. Coventry's 231-space City Arcade car park is also due to be demolished to make way for the huge regeneration project.

This parking area has already shut according to its listing on the council website which states: "Due to a serious structural issue City Arcade has permanently closed."

Earlier this year the 1970s car park at New Union Street was torn down. The council turned it into a temporary surface car park with 82 spaces.

[dutchman]

I'm old enough to remember when the car park was a paper reclamation yard!

The owner was very friendly and rather than chase-off local kids let us help ourselves to a gigantic tin of Garibaldi biscuits he kept in a shed on the site!