New arrangements will begin next week to control late night access to Riverside Car Park, St Neots in a bid to prevent anti-social behaviour that has been annoying neighbours.

Rising bollards have been installed which will be activated at midnight and remain in place until 6 am. As part of the £18,000 installation by Huntingdonshire District Council, they are linked to the CCTV system and can be monitored 24 hours a day.

There is also a voice link so that drivers who have a genuine reason for being in the car park after midnight will be allowed to leave by using the emergency call point. This puts them in touch with operators at the district council’s CCTV control centre. The staff there can see and respond to the individual via the CCTV camera and voicelink.  

Councillor Peter Bucknell, executive councillor for planning strategy, environment and transport, explained: “There have been problems with mis-use of the car park during the night and I am delighted that a solution has been found, which addresses the needs of the public by the efficient use of modern technology.”

There is a traffic light system showing red when the bollards are in the up position, preventing vehicles from entering or leaving. Motorists should wait until the light changes to green before driving over them.

The new arrangements will come into effect from Monday 19 November. Information signs will advise car park users of the closing times and how to contact the out of hours control centre staff.

Various systems of closing the car park overnight have been tried in the past but as they required somebody to go out to manually close and open the entrance and exit lanes, were expensive to run.