Kendal’s biggest car park to lose spaces as bays are widened from 28 September

Drivers using Kendal’s biggest car park face fewer available spaces from Monday 28 September, when work begins to widen its parking bays. The Westmorland Shopping Centre car park will stay open throughout the project, but floors will close in turn while the bays are repainted.

Westmorland and Furness Council, which operates the car park, confirmed the start date on 9 September. The council has awarded the relining contract, although it has not named the contractor or disclosed the cost of the work.

What is changing at the Westmorland Shopping Centre car park?

Standard parking bays will increase in width from 2.4 metres to 2.6 metres. Some spaces between the building’s structural pillars will be widened to more than 3 metres where there is enough room.

The changes mean the car park will accommodate fewer vehicles once the work is complete. However, neither of the council’s announcements gives a final figure for how many spaces will be lost.

The council says the scheme responds to complaints from customers who found the existing bays too narrow for modern cars. When the project was first announced on 29 July, deputy leader Councillor Andrew Jarvis described the car park as “an aging building that was designed for a very different era of motoring”.

Work will take place one floor at a time. Only the floor being worked on will be closed, with the remaining levels available to drivers. The council said on 9 September that further details about the floor closures would be released once the programme had been confirmed.

How many spaces could be affected?

The car park currently has 629 general spaces, as well as 11 parent-and-child spaces and 33 disabled spaces on levels 3 and 5, according to the council’s car park information.

That makes it the largest car park in Kendal. The source material uses a simple calculation to show why widening bays reduces capacity: a 31.2-metre run could fit 13 bays at 2.4 metres wide, compared with 12 bays at 2.6 metres.

That calculation is only an illustration, not the council’s estimate. Pillars, ramps and the wider spaces between pillars mean the final reduction will not follow a straightforward calculation.

The council has said it has reviewed parking arrangements and usage across the town in an effort to free more spaces for visitors and residents. It has not yet identified which other car parks are included or said how many additional spaces could be made available.

Parking alternatives and what drivers need to know

A wider study of parking in Kendal is also planned. The council’s July announcement said the study would be commissioned from August 2026 and completed by the end of March 2027. It will examine current car-park use and future demand, helping to inform later parking decisions.

Drivers using the Westmorland Shopping Centre car park should expect one floor to be unavailable at a time from 28 September. The wider bays should make parking and getting out of larger cars easier after each floor has been completed, but vehicles must still meet the entrance height restriction of 1.8 metres.

Current charges include an early-bird all-day ticket costing £1.40 when purchased between 7am and 9am. At other times, parking costs £2.20 for one hour or £8.10 all day, with payment made on exit.

Blue Badge holders continue to receive one hour free in addition to the time paid for, provided a clock disc is displayed.

If the car park is busier during the works, South Lakeland House on Kent Street has 194 spaces and Blackhall Road has 81. South Lakeland House also has a £1.50 Sunday rate, according to the parking information cited in the announcement.

Previous work at the car park

The relining follows the installation of a new LED lighting system throughout the building. A Contracts Finder award notice says that work was awarded to Cubby Construction of Carlisle on 27 August 2024 for £312,239.48, against an estimated cost of £180,000.

In October 2024, a routine inspection identified a problem with concrete on the ramp between levels 1 and 2. The lower level was then closed for eight to ten weeks while specialist repairs were carried out.