Smart Parking - The Food Centre Milton Keynes

H2017

Hi. Thank you. Sorry I am not asking where that newbie info is, I have read it but I am confused and want to make sure I am doing the right thing. A lot here seem experts at this. I have started a new thread.

MiserlyMartin

There are plans to demolish the entire food centre, with the loss of all this free parking and in my opinion another of MK's heritage buildings.

This car park is unique. Its well laid out with wide car spaces, easy to drive around unlike many multi storey car parks. Its bright and airy, doesn't really look like a car park especially outside. Lots of granite and marble, big pillars, great design

The shops will be lost and all those small independent retailers. It is not listed but it should be. I really don't understand the mentality of these people. It was built in 1988, no building in MK seems to be allowed to stand for very long before someone wants to knock it down. What they are proposing to build in its place is much higher breaking the planning rule of no building in MK will be higher than the tallest tree.

Not progress in every respect and an awul shame if this goes ahead

The_Deep

Anyone receiving a PCN from Smart should read this from Pete Wishert, MP in the HofC recently.

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]"I am sick and tired of receiving emails from people complaining about the behaviour of parking companies, telling me that they will never again visit Perth city centre because of the negative experience they had when they had the misfortune to end up in a car park operated by one of these companies. I have received more complaints about one car park in the city of Perth than about any other issue. That car park is operated by the lone ranger of the parking cowboys: the hated and appalling Smart Parking—I see that many other Members are unfortunate enough to have Smart Parking operating in their constituencies. It has reached the stage where one member of my staff now spends a good part of each day just helping my constituents and visitors to my constituency to navigate the appeals process.
…
The BPA does not have the ability to regulate these companies and has shown no sign whatsoever that it is trying to get on top of some of the sharper practices. The BPA gives a veneer of legitimacy to some of the more outlandish rogue operators by including them in their membership, allowing them to continue to operate. The Bill will oblige operators such as Smart Parking to amend their practices." [/FONT]

Coupon-mad

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

There are plans to demolish the entire food centre, with the loss of all this free parking and in my opinion another of MK's heritage buildings.

This car park is unique. Its well laid out with wide car spaces, easy to drive around unlike many multi storey car parks. Its bright and airy, doesn't really look like a car park especially outside. Lots of granite and marble, big pillars, great design

The shops will be lost and all those small independent retailers. It is not listed but it should be. I really don't understand the mentality of these people. It was built in 1988, no building in MK seems to be allowed to stand for very long before someone wants to knock it down. What they are proposing to build in its place is much higher breaking the planning rule of no building in MK will be higher than the tallest tree.

Not progress in every respect and an awul shame if this goes ahead

It could be argued that the presence of Smart has caused this decline.

kryten3000

Coupon-mad wrote: »

It could be argued that the presence of Smart has caused this decline.

It's been a long slow decline. The building used to be home to Sainsbury's and Waitrose, both moved to other locations within the town several years ago and the space they occupied has been pretty much unused since. There are a number of smaller retailers, but most motorists will be walking the short distance to the main shopping centre, thecentre:MK.

There's a shiny new mult-storey car park at one end of thecentre:MK, run by the shopping centre management, barrier entry/exit and not terribly expensive either (discounts available in stores to sweeten the deal).