Manchester Council recorded a £17m profit from its parking operations last year, prompting a columnist to question why more is not being done to improve the Church Street car park in the Northern Quarter, which has been described as the city's grimmest public multi-storey.
Dianne Bourne, Lifestyle Editor at the Manchester Evening News, wrote that a recent return visit to the car park left her "in a state of shock." She described being enveloped in the stench of urine as soon as she opened her car door, with footwells covered in grime and graffiti, and smells so intense they seemed to have "impregnated the walls."
She noted the stairways are painted a uniform black but with a "surreal cracking and dripping facade," and said the place feels like "a place of dread, even in broad daylight." She also highlighted a lack of signage about how to pay, which left her wandering around with other visitors before finding the pay station.
£17m parking profit and council figures
The columnist said she felt "heaps shame on our fair city" and was "filled with utter disgust" at the thought of visitors, particularly in the run-up to Christmas, experiencing the car park as their arrival point. She read last week that Manchester Council, the owners of the car park, made "an eye-popping £17m in parking profits last year."
According to a report, analysis on council revenues showed the council received one of the top five highest incomes from car parks and on-street parking outside of London, with a £17m profit in 2025-2026. In total, the charges brought in £39.132m, with £22.105m spent on maintenance and running costs. The figures do not include parking fines, which raised around £20m in the same period, according to a Freedom of Information request.
Bourne argued the council could spend some of that cash on giving "TLC" to the Church Street car park, which she described as the city's grimmest public multi-storey. However, she acknowledged the car park poses a unique problem because it is not just a place of doom, it is actually doomed—it has already been decided that the whole place needs to be razed to the ground.
Redevelopment plans and council response
Plans are afoot to sell the car park to a developer, Glenbrook, whose bosses have started consulting the local community on ideas involving 304 apartments and shops in new blocks in place of the car park. Negotiations for the sale are ongoing, so it has not been formally rubberstamped for Glenbrook to own it yet, and planning applications have not been formally submitted. That means the process of demolishing and redeveloping the car park could still be months or even years away.
Bourne noted that residents of the area have their own substantial problems around the car park, with its dark crevices providing spaces for anti-social behaviour. She asked the council for comment about what is planned for the car park now and raised her concerns about its state.
A Manchester Council spokesperson said: "We know that Church Street car park is an eyesore in our Northern Quarter and for too long it has been a major barrier to the ongoing success of the wider neighbourhood."
"This is why we are disposing the site to the team at Glenbrook to transform the site with around 300 new homes - including at least 20 per cent affordable housing - new commercial spaces and high-quality public spaces. The aim is to celebrate the independent ethos that makes the Northern Quarter special, while also celebrating its history, and completely reimagining this part of our city centre."
The spokesperson added: "So, there is an end in sight for the car park and following two rounds of public consultation earlier this year, we understand that Glenbrook will be submitting a planning application for the redevelopment of the site later this year."
Safety features and the case for improvement
The council stressed that while it "wouldn't be a good use of public money" to make a lot of investment in the car park given it is ultimately going to be demolished, they say they have invested in various safety features at the car park since taking it back from NCP in 2021, including new fire alarms and fire doors.
Bourne argued that does not go far enough in making it feel a safe or comfortable place to park right now, before the development begins. She said she would not go back to park there again as either a lone female or driving in with her kids. She noted that all revenue from parking fines made by the council is legally ring-fenced to only be used to reinvest back into highways and the parking service, and asked if even a small part of that money could be used to improve things at the car park.
She suggested hiring an industrial-sized jetwash to dampen down the smell and improving signage, which would not cost much in the grand scheme of things. She concluded: "I just feel more consideration needs to be given to just what an impression that Church Street car park leaves on people who have the misfortune to use it. This is not what Manchester should look, feel or smell like."
