DURHAM Chief Constable Paul Garvin yesterday visited a car park to present staff with an award for the second time in six months.

The 200-space multi-storey car park at the Millburngate Shopping Centre, in Durham, has been awarded the Park Mark Safer Parking Award.

It was previously known as the Secured Car Park award, which the centre received earlier this year.

The new award, presented on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers, follows work carried out as part of a £400,000 redevelopment of the centre.

Management have installed new signs, improved the lighting, introduced colour coding of parking bays and pedestrian walkways, upgraded security cameras, hired more attendants, modernised the lifts and ticket machines and provided more disabled bays.

Centre manager Andy Bradley said: "We have worked extremely hard to improve our car parking facility and to be recognised for our efforts with the new Park Mark Safer Parking Award is fantastic.

"The personal safety and security of our shoppers and their vehicles is of top priority to Millburngate and we will seek to maintain and improve both the car park and the centre's safety and cleanliness, providing an overall more enjoyable shopping experience."

Mr Garvin, said: "For years the car park has been gloomy, unfriendly and, for many of those driving in, a quite forbidding experience. Now it has been completely transformed into a light, bright airy complex where, I am sure, people will feel much safer

"The work provides a truly fitting welcome, not only for local shoppers but particularly for visitors coming to the historic city of Durham for the first time."