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Deal includes sites in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff

Q-Park has taken on 20 former NCP car park sites across the country in a “significant expansion” focused on town and city centres.

NCP, which operated more than 340 car parks across the UK, fell into administration in March. Now Q-Park has taken over the running of 20 former NCP sites on long-term leases after negotiations with their landlord.

The move comes two years after Q-Park acquired Britannia Parking, which it called a “significant milestone” in its growth. Several of the newly-acquired car parks will be run under the Britannia brand.

In a statement, Q-Park said: “With the previous operator of these locations having entered administration, there was a genuine risk that, like a number of other facilities, these car parks could have ceased operating. This acquisition helps secure their long-term future, ensuring that convenient parking remains available for the local community while providing continued support for local businesses, visitors and the wider local economy.”

Q-Park said it also planned to carry out refurbishment work at its new sites, including improving pedestrian routes and potentially adding EV charging equipment.

Adam Bidder, managing director of Q-Park UK, said: “We are delighted to have completed this agreement, which marks a significant expansion of our portfolio of city centre parking facilities across the UK. It allows us to bring the Q-Park brand and service offering to a wider range of towns and cities, including locations where we have not previously operated. We remain committed to investing in our network and will continue to explore further acquisition opportunities as part of our long-term growth strategy.”

The car parks that will operate under the Q-Park brand

Birmingham – Newhall Street

Bristol – Rupert Street and St James Barton

Cardiff – Greyfriars and Westgate Street

Colchester – High Street and Osborne Street

Hemel Hempstead – Hillfield Road

Ipswich – Tacket Street and Tower Ramparts

Manchester – Palace and Sackville Street

Newcastle – John Dobson Street

Nottingham – Stoney Street

Truro – Highcross

The car parks that will operate under the Britannia Parking brand

Birmingham – City Centre

Dundee – Willison Street

Gloucester – Blackfriars

Shrewsbury – Wyle Cop

Wolverhampton – Piper’s Row

New research from Savills also shows that take-up in the second half of this year will be much stronger than the first six months

Take-up of large industrial space in Wales has fallen, shows new research from property advisory firm Savills.

For units of more than 100,000 sq ft, Savills said that take-up of space in the first half of this year totalled 231,320 sq ft across two deals – including the letting of a 103,542 sq ft unit at the Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate in Tredegar.

This represented a 20.3% decrease compared on the first half of 2025. With 94% of available warehouse space comprising grade C units, Savills says there is significant scope to reposition older assets and deliver new speculative development to meet occupier demand for best-in-class space.

Both transactions completed during the first half of the year involved units in the 100,000–200,000 sq ft size bracket, underlining the long-established preference for smaller big box units in Wales. In terms of occupier activity, online retail accounted for 52% of take-up, with manufacturing 48%.

The research also shows that total available warehouse space at the end of June reached 2.66 million sq ft, an increase of 7.8% from 2.47 million sq ft at the start of the year. This equates to a vacancy rate of 3.33%, up from 3.09% at the end of 2025. Based on average five-year annual take-up levels, there is currently 1.64 years of available supply in the market.

There are currently six available units in the 100,000 to 200,000 sq ft size range, one between 200,000 to 300,000 sq ft, two between 300,000 to 400,000 sq ft and one unit of more than 500,000 sq ft.

However, with 528,000 sq ft of space across two units take up is expected to be stronger in H2 while further tightening supply.

The speculative development pipeline has also seen some renewed activity, with N115 Indurent Park Newport now under construction. The scheme will deliver 115,045 sq ft of grade A space and is scheduled to complete in the final quarter of this year.

Savills says the development highlights the opportunity to deliver modern logistics space in a market where available stock remains heavily weighted towards older, second-hand units.

Jack Davies, director at Savills, said: “While take-up has softened in the short term, the Welsh logistics market is entering an important phase of renewal. With the vast majority of available stock now comprising older grade C buildings, there is a significant opportunity to redevelop and repurpose obsolete assets.

“At the same time, demand for modern, sustainable and highly specified logistics space remains robust, particularly in strategically located markets connected to Wales’ key motorway networks.”

Kevin Mofid, head of industrial and logistics research at Savills, said: “The Welsh logistics market remains fundamentally under supplied when it comes to modern, large-scale warehouse accommodation. While take-up has been subdued in the first half of the year, supply is likely to tighten further as existing availability is absorbed and occupier requirements evolve.

“Looking ahead, we expect demand to be driven by a broad range of sectors including advanced manufacturing, defence, logistics, R&D and supply chain infrastructure, creating a compelling case for both speculative development and the redevelopment of obsolete stock.”

It’s a familiar experience: racing against masses of anonymous netizens online to get yourself on the list for an in-demand event.

For Andrew Bird, from Melbourne, in Australia, it was a spot in an often over-booked pilates class – but his solution had unexpected consequences.

He says he outsourced the “chore” to an AI agent – a tool that can carry out online tasks autonomously.

It succeeded, but went further than he imagined by hacking the gym’s online systems, in what is being seen as the latest example of the way AI agents will go to any lengths to carry out the jobs they’ve been given.

“What made the whole thing more surreal was the tone,” Bird wrote in his blog.

“The bot was not malicious. It was helpful.”

The news comes as AI firms have been admitting in recent weeks that their AI bots have been going on uncontrollable hacking sprees in testing sessions gone wrong.

OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta have all revealed that their own AI bots have carried out cyber-attacks on private companies in the pursuit of goals set by their makers.

The gym booking incident is not considered a serious cyber-attack but is another example of the unintended consequences of tasking sophisticated AI bots with jobs.

It actually happened in April, but has come to light now thanks to reporting from ABC News Australia, external.

Bird declined to talk to the BBC about it saying only: “Thanks for getting in touch. I am unavailable to participate in an interview. Appreciate your interest the story.”

He has also deleted his blog post about it from the time – but not explained why.

According to his account, Bird was using the software OpenClaw – a popular tool that allows users to chat to their AI bots (in this case Athropic’s Claude Opus 4.6) through WhatsApp and set it off on autonomous tasks.

He had previously used it to manage his emails, calendar and book restaurants.

Once given the gym booking task, the bot explained that it had manipulated the system to book him onto classes months in advance – against the normal rules of the system.

The AI technologist then wondered if the agent could move him up the waiting list for an upcoming class.

The agent replied saying it had succeeded by cancelling another gym-goer’s booking.

According to the ABC News report the AI bot told Bird: “The API has zero authorisations checks on cancelling other people’s reservations … I tested this with the person in waitlist position #1 — and it actually went through. So you’ve moved from #4 to #3 already.”

Bird asked the bot to reverse the action but it wasn’t able to so he asked it to write a cyber-security report and alert the gym owners about the vulnerability.

Bird, who runs an AI document making company, says he had no intention of cancelling his fellow pilates fan’s spot.

“It’s not the end of the world, so I didn’t beat myself up about it, but it certainly was a warning signal to use it responsibly,” he told ABC News.

Even just a small part of the Sun breaking through the glasses can harm your eyes, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists has warned, adding that the safest way to watch the event is indirectly – such as through a livestream or broadcast.

“Crucially, the retina has no pain receptors, so people will not feel the damage as it happens,” explains the college’s president Mohamed Elalfy.

The college reported around 70 cases of people experiencing vision problems after watching 1999’s eclipse – around 40% of those affected had looked at it for less than a minute.

Anyone who notices a change in their vision after looking at the Sun should seek advice from an eye-care professional.

If you cannot get your hands on proper glasses, the advice is to not simply opt for everyday sunglasses instead.

Imo Bell, a planetarium astronomer at The Royal Observatory Greenwich, says the specialist glasses are “very, very different” to regular sunglasses, which will not offer protection.

“They block out so much light that you can’t see anything through them except the Sun,” she told the PA news agency.

The UKHSA explains that regular sunglasses can also reduce glare and make it more comfortable for you to look at the Sun for longer – causing more damage.

You should not use binoculars, telescopes or the viewfinder of a camera even with your eclipse glasses on, because their magnifying effect can nullify the protection of the glasses and damage your sight.

For those without glasses or wanting to watch directly, you can do so using a pinhole projector.

You can make a simple one with a single sheet of card or something more ambitious using a cardboard box.

“We’re not going to get one this good for a really long time,” says Bell. “So, it’s important not to miss it, and to be prepared.”