Car park awards

Safe and secure car parking in Carlisle

The majority of Carlisle City Council's car parks have been judged as safe and secure by a national scheme.

 Park Mark awards are granted under the Safer Parking Scheme by the British Parking Association who manage the scheme on behalf of the Associations of Chief Police Officers for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. More than 2,000 UK car parks have received the distinction, around 450 of these are in the North West.

The 17 car parks to achieve the awards are: Civic Centre; Swifts Bank; The Sands; Bitts Park; Devonshire Walk; Paddy's Market; Lower Viaduct; Upper Viaduct; Town Dyke Orchard; Stanwix; Rosehill; Cecil Street; William Street; Shaddongate; Central Brampton; Union Lane Brampton and Gilsland.

Eleven of the car parks have received the award on previous occasions with the remaining six car parks (Cecil Street; William Street; Shaddongate; Central Brampton; Union Lane Brampton and Gilsland) having received the distinction for the first time this year, following recent improvement works. The most extensive works have been undertaken at Cecil Street. Around £30,000 has been spent on installing new fencing, disabled bays and rebuilding the boundary wall.

Cllr Ray Bloxham, Portfolio holder for Environment and Infrastructure said:

The awards are great news for the city as they re-enforce the message that drivers can park their vehicles in our car parks safe in the knowledge that every measure has been taken to make the safe and secure. Cumbria Police crime figures prove that incidents of crime within our car parks are low and in the case of half of our car parks crime is non-existent.

Judging of the Carlisle City Council car parks took place in June this year.