A “care plan” for maintenance and inspections at one of Shrewsbury’s main car parks is to be drawn up, after repairs were identified as being needed at the site.

Shropshire Council said its consultants Mouchel had carried out a brief inspection of the Raven Meadows multi-storey car park in the town centre. It identified that some “non-structural” repairs were needed.

Now the authority is looking to develop a plan for its future maintenance and inspections.

It comes as Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith, the authority’s portfolio holder for strategic planning and transportation, raised maintenance as a key issue for the car parks in a report to the authority.

In the report Councillor Taylor-Smith said there was a “need to develop and maintain all the car parks using a rigorous asset management approach”.

He added: “This is particularly true for the ageing Raven Meadows multi-storey which represents 25 per cent of Shropshire Council’s car parking income.

“Mouchel have been commissioned to develop a full life plan, with costings, for Raven Meadows to which the required operational infrastructure will be added.”

His report also said that a county-wide review of parking permits was under way, which “consolidates existing practices into one system”.

He said that a review of residents and season permits had highlighted that improvements were needed in some areas to “bring the permit provision in line with current customer needs”.

Councillor Taylor-Smith said a residents’ parking policy was being prepared to allow the development of flexible schemes. On parking, he said 29 of the council’s car parks received a “Park Mark” certificate which followed an assessment by the Safer Parking Scheme and a serving police officer showing that measures were in place to deter criminal activity and create a safer environment for the driver and their vehicle.

Of the Raven Meadows plan, John Williams, the council’s team leader for structures, said: “We asked our consultants, Mouchel, to do a brief inspection of this car park a few months ago.

“This identified a need for some non-structural rep-airs. We are currently proposing to develop a full care plan for future maintenance and inspections.”

By John Kirk