New Car Park Opens in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Road Crime Team Abnormal Loads Operation
Written by Hitmix Local News on 23 January 2025
A new car park in Newcastle town centre is opening to serve residents, shoppers, workers and visitors – both now and well into the future.
Castle car park – which replaces the ageing Midway – opens its doors to the public for the first time at 7am tomorrow, Friday, 24 January, and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
The modern five-storey building, based on part of the Ryecroft site on Liverpool Road, includes 472 spaces – including 19 for motorcycles – and 39 electric vehicle charging points which will be fully operational from next week. Other amenities include automated main doors, energy-efficient lighting, 11 disability spaces on lower levels and lifts and ramps enabling full accessibility. The variable stay, pay-on-return car park is surrounded by trees and hedgerows, boosting the biodiversity of the area.
The transformative project underpins Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council’s wider, once-in-a-generation £30 million redevelopment of the overall Ryecroft site.
The Midway closes at 7pm today as preparations begin to convert the building into 100 apartments, and the Ryecroft surface car park closes at 6am tomorrow morning.
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The Staffordshire Police road crime team carried out proactive enforcement against those failing to meet expected safety standards on our roads, focussing on abnormal loads and commercial vehicles. Last Wednesday, they took part in a multi-agency operation alongside National Highways, the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and police forces from West Midlands, Lancashire, Northumbria and Greater Manchester.
Several abnormal loads were escorted into a check site off the M6 in Stafford for examination. Four abnormal loads were found to be moving through our county without the required movement notification, resulting in them being taken off the road until the correct paperwork was issued