THERE are changes afoot at a busy city centre car park.

From this Saturday (May 14) the opening hours of the Coppergate Centre car park are in York city centre are set to change.

The car park was previously open until 8pm at night but City of York Council say it will now close an hour earlier at 7pm.

A council spokesperson said that the idea behind the change is that after 7pm the city centre is accessible to all vehicles and parking for blue badge holders, who either use the on-street parking bays around the city centre or the car parks including Coppergate Centre while the footstreets are closed.

Another reason for the earlier closing time is that parking officers and the Coppergate shopping centre management have highlighted that the car park gets little use after 7pm.

The Coppergate Shopping Centre closes at 5.30pm Monday to Thursday, 6pm Friday to Saturday and 5pm on Sundays. Shopmobilty, based at the car park, closes at 4pm.

James Gilchrist, director of transport, environment and planning, at City of York Council spokesperson said: “We’ve been working closely with partners to review the opening times. In doing so, we are aligning Coppergate Centre Car Park with the current footstreet times of 7pm. We also hope that the earlier closing time will help to tackle the issue of anti-social behaviour we've recently experienced."

Additional CCTV has also been installed in the ground floor lobby area of the car park.