Is this £7m Norwich building the best new car park in the country?

The unusual facade at the Rose Lane multi-storey car park in Mountergate. Photo : Steve Adams (Image: Copyright Archant Norfolk 2016)

The 595-space Rose Lane car park - with its unusual facade full of holes - has been shortlisted in the British Parking Awards.

The Norwich City Council-owned car park has been put forward by Huber, the company which designed and built the five-storey structure in Mountergate.

Officially opened in May 2016 and project managed by NPS Norwich, the car park includes 36 disabled parking bays, racks inside and out for bicycles, new public toilets and recently installed electric charging points.

Bert Bremner, the council's cabinet member with responsibility for transport, said: 'We're very grateful to Huber for putting Rose Lane multi-storey car park forward for an award and really pleased to be shortlisted at this year's British Parking Awards.

The Rose Lane multi-storey car park in Mountergate. Photo : Steve Adams (Image: Copyright Archant Norfolk 2016)

'Rose Lane is a very impressive modern car park. It's only a 10 minute walk on foot to the city centre and even less to the train station, Riverside and Castle Mall so it's ideally located for lots of different groups and car park users.'

Markus Lauble, managing director of Huber Car Park Systems, said: 'We're very excited to be in the running for the best new car park award – its bold architectural design and complex specification makes Rose Lane a truly outstanding car park project.

Aerial view of the car park when it was being built in December 2015. Picture: Mike Page (Image: Mike Page)

'We're thrilled that the panel of judges has shortlisted us for this prestigious award.'

Rose Lane will be up against car parks in Birmingham, Darlington, Leeds and Solihull, with the awards ceremony in London this Friday.

Bert Bremner (Image: Archant)

This is the second time a city car park has made the shortlist. St Andrews Car Park was named best new car park in the 2006 British Parking Rewards.

But the £9.3m car park, which opened in 2005, was then hit by a string of problems. Four years after it opened, cracks were discovered and props put in place.

Norwich City Council was then locked in talks for a number of years over a compensation settlement from the insurers of the company which built it.

The £1.1m of repairs finally started in 2015, with the space for shoppers at the multi-storey car park cut by as much as a third during months of work.

It reopened with 1,084 spaces last year.