{"id":671594,"date":"2026-01-03T17:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671594\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T17:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:26:10","slug":"edinburgh-road-car-park-in-ashford-set-to-close-permanently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671594\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh Road car park in Ashford set to close permanently"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A large town centre car park is to close next weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The 210-space Edinburgh Road building in Ashford shuts on Sunday, January 11, according to a notice put up by Ashford council.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 4162 2326\" alt=\"The Edinburgh Road car park in Ashford\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"5OXL0HZW9KBBXZ588WOR.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.79\"\/>The Edinburgh Road car park in Ashford<\/p>\n<p>The photograph of the sign was taken by Francesca Dove, who works a few minutes\u2019 walk away in the Tucked Away Takeaway in the High Street.<\/p>\n<p>She told KentOnline: \u201cI\u2019m panicking of where I can park now. There are others nearby, but they are more expensive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlso, all other drivers using Edinburgh Road will have to go somewhere else too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The multi-storey car park is one of the few in the town centre, along with the already-closed neighbouring Park Mall car park, that only charges until 3pm. Others make drivers pay until 6pm.<\/p>\n<p>They have also charged \u00a31.10 per hour, while the Vicarage Lane and Station Road spaces nearby cost \u00a31.30.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 730 696\" alt=\"The notice announcing the closure date for the Edinburgh Road car park in Ashford. Picture: Francesca Dove\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"23Q77YAHJG8FMGR6WNRZ.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.05\"\/>The notice announcing the closure date for the Edinburgh Road car park in Ashford. Picture: Francesca Dove<\/p>\n<p>The loss of both car parks means a total wipeout of 254 town centre spaces.<\/p>\n<p>The Edinburgh Road block is being demolished along with the neighbouring Park Mall Shopping Centre for redevelopment.<\/p>\n<p>The council, which owns both sites, wants to place an interim 200-space car park before eventually using the land for housing.<\/p>\n<p>The last trader at Park Mall,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentonline.co.uk\/ashford\/news\/date-given-for-permanent-closure-of-second-town-centre-car-p-334668\/kentonline.co.uk\/ashford\/news\/we-ve-stayed-open-until-the-very-end-the-final-shop-left-334651\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Matthew Abercrombie, of Vapeology<\/a>, is now leaving, with the centre closing completely next Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The council says the 1987-built Park Mall has to go because of a declining retail sector, the loss of anchor tenants such as Wilko and escalating maintenance costs.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 860 789\" alt=\"Francesca Dove uses the Edinburgh Road car park in Ashford as her workplace is nearby. Picture: Francesca Dove, Facebook\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"WTCWU99I1HP8WCOFEDPP.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.09\"\/>Francesca Dove uses the Edinburgh Road car park in Ashford as her workplace is nearby. Picture: Francesca Dove, Facebook<\/p>\n<p>It rejected a 3,500-signature petition submitted by the Save Park Mall campaign group, which called for the centre to be kept.<\/p>\n<p>Internal papers previously revealed how the authority &#8211; which has owned the shopping centre since 2015 &#8211; considers the site \u201cnot financially sustainable\u201d, with annual losses of \u00a3700,000.<\/p>\n<p>Most businesses at Park Mall have found new premises either in the town centre, including Vapeology, or further out in Ashford town or borough<strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large town centre car park is to close next weekend. The 210-space Edinburgh Road building in Ashford&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[605,748,51,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-671594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-ashford","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115832342823587603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}