Cheshire East Council are taking steps to resolve problems caused by 'anti-social behaviour' in one of the town centre car parks which have been going on for years.
The authority has submitted plans to improve security and screening at Spring Street car park following an increase in the number of complaints.
The Council is proposing to secure the ground floor level of the multi-storey car park off Water Lane with full height welded mesh fencing together with new security roller shutters to secure the vehicle entrance and exits.
In addition louvred screens are to be fitted on the external top deck to prevent headlights shining into adjacent properties.
The entrance to the car park from Spring Street is open along the South and South East sides of the site whilst the exit onto Hawthorn View is also open to access at ground level. No vehicle barriers are currently installed on entry or exit of the car park.
The Council now wishes to secure the ground level deck to prevent unauthorised access outside normal opening hours and stop headlights, from cars on the upper deck, affecting the residents of the Hawthorn Green apartments.
Local resident Mrs Humphreys attended the Wilmslow Town Council meeting in May last year to ask for their assistance in resolving issues with South Street car park which she has been experiencing for the past 8 years.
She explained "The main problem is the anti-social behaviour. The car park is used for skateboarding, racing cars, smoking all sorts of different things and constantly playing loud music which keeps my family and people that live quite nearby awake.
"They set off fire alarms as well quite frequently, unfortunately the company that manages it takes an hour and a half to come and switch it off at best, sometimes its longer than that - it's been going for 5 hours in the past.
"The car park is also open until 10 o'clock at night so that behaviour can carry on until 10 o'clock at night and it is not actually closed off beyond 10 o'clock so they can still gain access later on at night."
The plans can be viewed on the Cheshire East Council website by searching for planning reference 17/1811M. The last date for submitting comments is 26th April and a decision is expected by 30th May.
Comments
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I have written to CEC to suggest they make the disused park on Hawthorn Lane into a skatepark but haven't had a response yet! I also attended the last WTC meeting to raise my suggestion. What the ASB has proven is that kids in the area are bored. I have no objection to kids getting out and excercising with friends but when you and your young family are getting woken up in the middle of the night due to ASB it's not on.
Wouldn't get much anti social behaviour next to the police station...