Lurke Street car park is now open along with River Street multi-storey car park and the Harpur Centre car park. 

With Government guidance allowing ‘non-essential’ shops to open from that date, Bedford Borough Council and the Harpur Centre are working to make it as easy and safe as possible for people to visit.

These car parks will join Queen Street multi-storey, Riverside, St Mary’s Gardens, St Peter’s, Duckmill Lane, Ashburnham Road, Prebend Street and Melbourne Street which have been open throughout lockdown for essential journeys. Allhallows (bus station) car park will remain closed until further notice.

The Council has been working with the Harpur Centre, local businesses, partners at Love Bedford, and the Town Deal Board to complete plans for the safe re-opening of the town centre.

The Harpur Centre has remained open to provide essentials to the community throughout the crisis and has already began to implement new measures to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for visitors and employees. The new measures fully integrate all health and safety guidelines detailed in the Safer Public Places document published by the Government.

Bedford Borough Council teams have increased cleaning, added social distancing measures at the markets, will be placing signage, floor markers and banners reminding people to socially distance, and have been engaging with businesses throughout this difficult time. 

Car parks are re-open with normal opening hours and charges in place. Parking enforcement staff are carrying out patrols both in car parks and on-street, and will be issuing fines to people who park unlawfully or fail to make the appropriate payments. Full details of opening hours and charges where applicable can be found at www.bedford.gov.uk/parking