Angry drivers slam NCP after hundreds left trapped inside Manchester city centre car park

Angry drivers have raised their concerns after a string of incidents where they have been left trapped inside a Manchester city centre NCP car park. The MEN is now aware of FIVE different incidents where hundreds of motorists were left shuttered inside the NCP Palace on Whitworth Street over the past six weeks when the exit failed to open.

The MEN first highlighted the issue at the weekend after an incident at the multi-storey car park on Monday, November 4, when around 200 motorists were trapped when the metal exit shutter would not open. In response to our article, a string of motorists have now come forward to say the same thing has happened to them at the same NCP car park with the shutters not opening on different nights.

The car park is popular with audiences heading to the neighbouring Palace Theatre, and will often see a high volume of drivers leaving at the same time after a theatre show in the evening. All of the incidents with the shutters reported to the MEN have occurred post-theatre shows.

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Since our first article, we have now had complaints from motorists highlighting four other nights at the same car park involving the shutter not opening since October. Drivers struggled to find a way to contact anyone at NCP, with no emergency phone numbers displayed at the exit - and on two occasions the only way motorists got out was by someone manually lifting the shutter.

NCP bosses have "sincerely apologised" over the incident that occurred on November 4, blaming a "technical fault, which is extremely unusual". The multi-storey fits up to 411 cars at capacity.

In response to the new complaints that the MEN has now raised, NCP has committed to staffing evenings where the car park is expected to be busy with theatregoers - to try and prevent any such incidents happening again. They say the shutters will also be checked by their contractors for any faults.

The most recent complaint was from a reader who was trapped inside the NCP after Blood Brothers at the Palace Theatre on Friday, November 22 - just a day after the MEN had initially made contact with NCP to raise the issue of the earlier incident. On Friday, the shutter could be seen still lodged open at 11.30pm after a member of the public manually lifted it to let cars out of the car park after the theatre show ended.

Helen Brien has told the MEN the same thing happened to her on Saturday, November 16. She said: "We had been to Elf at the Palace. I have tried to log a complaint with NCP via their website.

"We were kettled in the ground floor for about 25 minutes. I went to use the fire door to get to the street and get signal - the fire doors were sealed with cable ties! So dangerous. Someone forced the barrier up for us all to exit, which is dangerous too."

David Wilson told the MEN about his experience on Wednesday October 2 after watching Book of Mormon at the Palace Theatre. He said: "We were about the 10th car in the queue waiting to get out. We were stuck for about 20 minutes. I too inspected the info boards for a phone number but only got through to various options for extra parking or monthly subscription payments.

"After 20 minutes the roller door suddenly opened all by itself with no intervention from the trapped customers. I have emailed NCP 3 times since on their web page but have had absolutely nothing back from them. I consider the situation a serious health and safety concern."

Sonia Smith wrote on the MEN's Facebook page of her experience. She said: "It happened to us too on the 5th November after the evening performance at the NCP next to the Palace theatre.

"The car at the exit had tried to tailgate so the shutter had locked down and was wedged in front of hundreds of other cars bumper to bumper waiting to get out! Took 30 mins to work out that the shutter door had to fully drop and raise between each and every car so it took a further half hour to get out as every car had to let the main shutter go up and down in between to allow exit.

"I can understand the need for extra security for the night parking after 10pm but the security clearly hasn’t factored in the mass exit of cars required after a theatre show!"

We have put all the new complaints to NCP, who have now responded to say a number of actions will now be taken at the multi-storey car park. After our initial article published on November 23, they had already committed to placing new signs around the exit with emergency contact numbers.

The new statement from NCP said: "We can confirm that as well as improving our signage on the exit points of this car park, we will now be ensuring that we staff the exit points on show nights to be present when there is a high volume of traffic exiting at the same time.

"We do always have staff on patrol around all our sites in Manchester, but we will commit to have a team present at peak periods to help prevent any issues. Our contractor will be looking at the shutters to check there is no issues that may be causing the problem.

"We hope that with the customer contact number in a more prominent place on exit, and staff present during busy peak times when shows are ending, that this will all help keep our car park flowing smoothly."

Responding to the complaint about the fire doors being tied, they said: "With regards to the fire doors, we can confirm that the security ties are designed to break with a small amount of force and were installed to help deter anti-social behaviour that we were experiencing on these sites."