Bolton Council responds as NCP goes into administration

NCP, which runs car parks on Deane Road, King Street, Topp Way, the Octagon Theatre and elsewhere announced today that it had called in the administrators PriceWaterhouseCooper.

The 95-year-old company, owned by Japan based Park24, was reported to have been struggling with losses nationwide.

A Bolton Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of the situation regarding NCP and the intention to appoint an administrator.

“All NCP car parks in Bolton are open and operating as normal.

The NCP car park on Deane Road (Image: Newsquest)

 “We are in close discussion with NCP, and the public will be informed if there is any change to NCP car parks in Bolton.”

The Bolton News understands that in Bolton’s case all of the NCP car park buildings are owned by the council, meaning the sites are not at risk of closure.

This could give the council the option of either bringing in new operators or taking over the running of the borough’s car parks directly.

NCP operates about 340 car parks across the UK including in major towns and city centres, airports, hospitals, and train stations.

The company said that it was hit by a fall in demand around the time of the Covid pandemic and that it has still not yet recovered to historic levels.

NCP said this has also partly come about because of a change to commuting and consumer driving patterns which have impacted occupancy across its car parks.

In January 2024 Bolton Council finalised a proposal to write off around £1.2M worth of debt that NCP owed to it after around 100 days of often heated debate.

This was out of around £4M of debt the company owed to the council that had built up since the Covid crisis.

A majority of councillors voted for a motion to reject the debt write off proposal at a town hall meeting in November 2023.

But a final decision to agree the debt write off was agreed by the council cabinet the following January.

Falling into administration has now put 682 jobs across the country at risk.

PwC joint administrator and partner Zelf Hussain said: “NCP has faced a challenging trading environment over several years, with changing consumer behaviours impacting volumes, and a high fixed cost-base leading to trading losses.

“Our priority on appointment is to ensure continuity of service while we undertake a detailed review of the business.

“All sites are open, staff remain in post, and trading continues as normal.

“We will be engaging with landlords, employees and other stakeholders as we explore all options, including the potential sale of all or part of the business, to secure the best possible outcome for creditors.”