The owners of a parking lot that was built and operated without a building permit have received a rejection notice from the city administration.

The car park, near the Grosvenor Centre and the former Greyfriars bus station in Northampton, was briefly open to the public but was voluntarily closed in March.

East Island Partnership, formerly known as Zone Developments, filed plans to convert the abandoned site into a 55-space parking lot.

However, a planning report by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) said the development was “unsafe” due to poor planning and “dangerous” traffic access, and permission was refused.

The application to start construction was only confirmed by the municipality in February.

The site was formerly an open green space and was used as a public road between Lady’s Lane and Greyfriars.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service added that other reasons for rejecting the plan included a “failure” to demonstrate that the applicant would not cause damage to “irreplaceable cultural assets”.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service and Northamptonshire Police also lodged complaints, saying the amount of “trip hazards” and debris was “shameful”.

The local authority’s planning officers concluded that the benefits were very limited and refused planning permission.

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