The NCP car park on Nelson Street has been sold to London-based developer Downing while a planning application is in at City Council for the one on Rupert Street.
Car drivers in Bristol are worried about the growing number of car parks shutting down.
With two multi-storey car parks in the city centre up for redevelopment, Bristolians could soon face increasing difficulties in parking their vehicles.
“That stops business people like me coming in, doing work in the city”, says Mick Reed who regularly uses the NPC car park on Rupert street.
As an entrance matt fitter, it is crucial for Reed’s job to get his car as close to customers’ houses as possible.
Most people understand redevelopments into flats and student accommodations are needed to combat Bristol’s housing crisis.
However, they also worry about what this will mean for transportation around the city.
Tom Compton, a University Of Bristol medical student, recently had his car towed because of unclear signage and is afraid that the situation will become a lot worse.
“They haven’t got redundancies in place to make up for the lack of parking”, he says, “it’s not like they’re building new car parks out of Bristol and having park and ride systems in place”.
Compton also believes that buses can not be sought as an alternative, considering they are “quite inconsistent” and there are “not that many bus routes”.
In fact, Bristol City Centre is not the only area facing a decrease in parking options.
South Gloucestershire Council has recently announced that it will start charging parking fees at St. Mary Shopping Centre in Thornbury.
Councillor Liz Brennan, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council who has been actively campaigning against the introduction of parking fees says that, “risks harming highstreets, shopping centres and local economy”.
