Nearing the end

Work on the refurbishment was halted over the busy Christmas shopping period but started again as soon as the January sale shopping had died down.

The main work outstanding was to replace the wiring and lights on level 4, so this level once again had to be closed while the work is being carried out.

Thank you to all of our blue badge customers and those using Shopmobility for being so understanding during the time that you have been moved to level 6 where temporary bays were set up.

The good news is that most of the new lights have now been installed so half of the level can be reopened. The electricians have told me that they are now working on putting up the new LED lights which will illuminate the zebra crossing to guide people over to the staircase to Napier Street.

LED lights being tested

The LED lights are part of a trial to see if they are suitable for use in a car park setting. We have been concerned for some time about the amount of electricity used to power all the car park lights, especially because they have to be on 24 hours a day every day of the year as our car parks never close.

LED lights use considerably less electricity and also have reduced maintenance costs so we are interested to see how they perform; we can then look into replacing some of the less-efficient lighting at one of our other car parks.

One other job which is underway is the new sign at the entrance which will also incorporate the height barrier and height sensor for the car park entrance equipment. One of the entrance lanes will be closed off whilst this work is completed.

A few spaces still need to be blocked off

There are still some smaller jobs to be done around the car park, but compared to what regular users and the staff have become used to over the past six months there shouldn’t be too many problems – just a few parking spaces that might be needed to be blocked off, rather than whole floors.

The refurbishment involved major work. A lot of it not immediately noticeable, and sometimes it seems to have been going on forever, but hopefully we can soon see the end of endless fencing blocking off the parking bays.