Futuristic 600-space car park lies empty for last FOUR years

A HUGE city centre car park, which was hailed as Britain's most technologically advanced when it opened, has been sitting empty for four years, it emerged today.

The 600-space facility on Morrison Street, which used robots to park and retrieve vehicles, has been gathering dust since its operator went into receivership in 2003.

And it has been left idle for so long, the car park's complicated mechanisms now need a complete overhaul before it can be used again.

The 5 million Autosafe "Sky Park", which allows cars to be "stacked" and takes up only half the space of a traditional multi-story, was opened to much fanfare in 2001.

However, just two years later, operator Sky Parks (Edinburgh) Ltd went into receivership.

It is understood that the cost of running the robotics forced administrators to all but close the car park, with just four spaces in the forecourt left available.

Sky Parks' joint receiver KPMG today revealed that an international car park operator was interested in buying the troubled site, with plans to refurbish and re-open the facility.

It is hoped a deal can be reached within the next two months.

Business and motoring groups today described the unused car park as a missed opportunity to alleviate the city centre's parking pressures.

Neil Greig, head of policy in Scotland for the Institute of Advanced Motorists Motoring Trust, said: "We can't have 600 perfectly good parking spaces sitting in Edinburgh unused.

"I hope they find a solution as soon as possible as the pressures on parking in the city centre are going to grow and this seems like such a wasted opportunity."

The car park, next to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), is at the rear of the Edinburgh One office block occupied by Scottish Widows.

Graham Bell, a spokesman for Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: "It's such a wasted opportunity to have a car park of that size in the heart of the city's business district lying empty.

"You have to consider that the big car park at the bottom of Morrison Street will close shortly when the redevelopment begins there, so parking spaces in this part of the city will be at a premium.

"If there is no way of using the site as a car park then we need to look at other uses because it is a prime location."

One of the big selling points of the Sky Park was that because the cars were parked in an area inaccessible to the public, it is more difficult for opportunist thieves.

Blair Nimmo, of KPMG, said: "We have had lots of interest in the car park. However, this is a complicated sales process due to the unusual nature of the car park and the requirement to maintain it as a robotic car park."

PARKING WITH ROBOTS

THE Sky Park has two entrances, at Morrison Street and the West Approach Road, while all cars exit to the West Approach Road.

When the system was fully functional, motorists would drive in and be directed to one of four brightly-coloured bays at the entrance of the building.

Sensors then scanned the cars to gauge their dimensions and ensured they were unoccupied before automatically transporting them to the nearest space via lifts, turntables and "robot shuttles".

When drivers returned they inserted their parking ticket into a pay machine which automatically signalled for the car to be retrieved.

The vehicle was presented and ready to drive away within three minutes.