A city centre car park where £1.1m of repair work was needed will finally be completely re-opened later this month.

The spaces available for shoppers at Norwich City Council's St Andrews multi-storey car park has been cut by as much as a third at times during months of work.

The car park, off Duke Street, opened in 2005. but just four years later cracks were discovered and props were put in place.

It took years to thrash out who should pay for the repairs to the council's biggest public car park.

A compensation settlement from the insurers of the company that built it was reached last year.

Work was due to start last August, but the contractor pulled out and, after a new one was found, the repairs started a month later.

Work continued until October and resumed in January, after it was suspended over Christmas. It will completely re-open, with 1,084 spaces, later this month.

A Norwich City Council spokesman said: 'We've carefully managed this complex phase of repairs, always working on a section at a time in order that the car park remained open and people could continue to park their cars.

'We're now into the final stage of repair work, including clearing up – all of which should be complete by about mid-May.

'The work involved with carrying out the repairs has been noisy and dusty at times so we just wanted to thank those affected for their patience and understanding.'

Meanwhile, a new £7m multi-storey car park in Norwich is due to open this month, after just over a year of construction work.

The 595-space Rose Lane car park is replacing Norwich City Council's current surface car park in the street, which council leaders say will pave the way for the regeneration of the area around King Street.

German company Huber Car Park Systems has been working on the car park – made of 504 tonnes of galvanised steel, since March last year.