I went to Deepdale Shopping Park - what is going on with the car park?

What is going on with the car park?

I’ve been to the park a few times lately - the most recent on Tuesday - and parking was chaos. On that morning, traffic wasn’t able to get in front of Marks and Spencers, so cars were backed up and tempers were flaring.

As well as parking spaces unavailable, large sections of footpath outside big name shops are also fenced off, and shoppers are being sent through higgledy piggledy temporary walkways with yellow plastic ramps for wheelchair users.

There’s no information visible on what’s happening, but through the metal fencing you can see massive trenches dug out by heavy machinery, large stacks of paving bricks, uprooted benches, as well as rolls of plastic netting. It’s been in this state for some time.

I visited back in May and the area outside Next and Clarks was fenced off, with the children’s play area removed and people forced to walk the long way round to get to shops. It has subsequently been resurfaced and reopened.

So what’s going on?

I reached out to the land owners Melford, to Preston City Council, to Preston BID, as well as local councillors. Melford have not responded, and either the others don’t know, or it’s not in their remit.

Anecdotally I was told by people employed at the park, that the work is because the retail park was built on a former quarry and landfill site, the ground is now subsiding in areas. Remedial works on the car park are needed, with filling in and resurfacing work taking place. They say they’ve been told that the work could take up to a year to complete.

History of the site

Deepdale Shopping Park is a 280,000 sq ft shopping park featuring prime retailers such as M&S, Boots, Next and River Island. It opened in the early 90s on the site of an old quarry which had subsequently been used for landfill. In 2014 it underwent a £16m extension which delivered an additional 45,000 sq ft of retail space which was 100% pre-let to Wren Living, Sofaworks, Harveys and Oak Furniture Land.