Car park lifts broke down 16 times in six months

The lifts in a city car park broke down 16 times in six months and a council spent £150,000 repairing them, according to a Freedom of Information request.

Lincoln Central Car Park, which has more than 1,000 spaces, opened in 2017 as part of a £30m transport hub.

But it has now been branded "consistently unreliable" by Conservative Councillor Tom Dyer, who said the situation was "unacceptable".

City of Lincoln Council said the car park was dealing with a high volume of visitors and attributed the issues to general wear and tear.

The breakdowns were reported between May and October this year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. A lift leading on to the shopping precinct in Sincil Street was to blame for half of them.

The authority said it had made several significant repairs to the car park, including the repainting of "superficial" cracks in the floor covering.

Kieron Manning, assistant director for planning and services, said the number of issues had now decreased and the lifts had "not broken down at all in over 10 weeks".

However, Dyer said it was "unacceptable" for a car park that cost millions of pounds to be "plagued by so many issues".

"The lifts frequently break down, payment machines work only intermittently and during peak times the car park becomes so congested that it can take over 30 minutes to exit," he added.

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