Anger as windows smashed in NCP car park in Brighton

The woman, who asked not to be named, had parked in the National Car Parks (NCP) car park in Church Street, Brighton, whilst she took her daughter for pizza. 

When she returned an hour later at around 8pm she found the passenger window of her VW Tiguan had been smashed and two bags had been stolen. 

She said: “My daughters swimming kit and school bag were the only belongings taken. 

“However the theft has left my daughter upset, her school belongings were probably worthless to the perpetrator, however she was without stationery and equipment for school.”

Upon discovering the break in on Friday, February 25, she phoned the NCP number on the side of the ticket machine which prompted a representative to come to the location 15 minutes later. 

The woman said: “He then went into this room where the security guard was. 

“My car alarm would’ve been going off for 20 minutes, half an hour before it stopped and no one was aware of it. 

“They said that there’s no CCTV anywhere a part from the entrances and exits on the ground floor.”

Later she contacted NCP and they told her that leaving a vehicle in the car park is at the owner’s risk. 

She added: “I replied saying they have a duty of care to customers because they haven’t put any additional protections in place even though they’re aware of these situations. 

“They’re yet to reply.”

Due to the car being a company vehicle, the woman does not yet know the cost of fixing her smashed window. 

It is not the first time an incident like this has occurred with several similar breakins happening over the last few years. 

Last year Jack Payne from Rottingdean discovered his car with smashed windows after finishing a shift at the Waggon and Horses pub in Church Street.

He said it was the second time it had happened at the car park in Church Street.

Jack said some change was taken from his car and that the most difficult issue has been getting the windows and frames repaired.

A spokeswoman for NCP said: "We are sorry to hear about the experience one of our customers had when parking with us, it is always very frustrating to hear about these situations.

"Our staff work hard to try to stop people that aren't customers being on our car park but the very nature of our business, a building open to the public, means that at times we do have people enter our site for reasons other than parking.

"We have a team working across the sites, patrolling and cleaning on shift patterns.

"We have security doors and we have also hired external security staff. 

"Unfortunately, the crime problem in Brighton does affect our car park, the two will always go hand in hand despite efforts to counteract it.

"As a business we liaise with many local organisations, the local PCSO's, Police and several homelessness and drug addiction organisations.

"We will continue to review and change our staff shift patterns in the hope that we can continue to try to prevent this type of incident.

"As a business we are happy to be involved in any ongoing strategy to address these local issues and have recently put our concerns to a local MP concerning this and discussing that more help is needed for local businesses affected by this matter."