Ashford’s Edinburgh Road car park will shut for four weeks from Monday, April 27.

It is the second lengthy closure of the council-run town centre multi-storey in six months. It will be a nuisance for shoppers and town centre workers and leave the cash-strapped council, who lease the car park, with a big repair bill.

The car park was originally shut for repairs on October 20, 2008 and was due to reopen on November 7, in time for the peak Christmas shopping period, but the discovery of a crack in the ramp support meant the work over ran.

It reopened just before Christmas as a temporary measure with scaffolding supporting the ramp, and it was always known that the car park would need to close again while a permanent solution was found.

The cost to town centre workers and shoppers is inconvenience; the cost to Ashford Borough Council for last year’s repairs was £188,000 and the estimated loss of income was £34,000.