Newmarket West car park and its electric charging points are closed while the old Riverside centre comes down. 108 extra spaces are promised by mid-November.
Morpeth’s Newmarket West car park is shut, and the electric vehicle charging points in it are switched off. Demolition of the former Riverside Sports Centre started on Monday 7 September, and the council says the first phase will last three weeks, taking the full closure to around 28 September (Northumberland County Council).
After that, the council says about one third of Newmarket West stays closed, with the rest of the car park and the charging points back in use. The whole job is expected to finish by mid-November.
What replaces it
The leisure centre site becomes an extension of Newmarket West. The council puts the gain at:
- 108 additional standard parking spaces
- 10 dedicated motorcycle spaces
- a small area of paving and public realm at the southern end, facing the river and Carlisle Park
The two food outlets currently in Newmarket East are to move onto that new paved area. The council says this improves pedestrian safety and frees their existing pitch for more parking, so the final space count across the two car parks should rise by more than the 108 headline figure.
Work runs weekdays, 8am to 4pm. Dust suppression is a planning condition. Large vehicles will arrive at the start and end of the job to deliver and remove machinery. Advance Northumberland is managing the work for the council.
Where to park instead, for free
Every council car park in Morpeth town centre is free. The two at the railway station are the exception, at £4.50 for 24 hours. The catch in the rest is the parking disc: it is compulsory in the three-hour bays, costs £1, has to be bought before you park, and not displaying one is a £50 penalty. Newmarket West is one of the disc car parks, so anyone displaced from it is not losing a paid space, but may need to move to an all-day one.
Six of them are all day and need no disc, according to the council’s Morpeth car parks list, last updated on 13 August 2026:
- Gas House Lane, open 8am to 6pm every day. Cars left inside at closing time are locked in overnight
- Goose Hill
- Greys Yard
- Matheson’s Gardens
- St James, white bays only
- Staithes Lane, open 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday, also locked at closing
The nearest three-hour disc alternatives to Newmarket West are Whalebone Lane A to D, The Terrace, Back Riggs and Newmarket East, which is unaffected by the closure. More on how the disc works, and what happens if you do not display one, is on our parking in Northumberland page.
The part the announcement does not lead on
The council owns the Riverside building, and it became redundant when Morpeth’s £21m leisure centre and community services hub opened. What happened next is in the council’s own words: “Extensive work to market the site failed to attract the type of development that the authority had aspired for the site and the town.”
So a riverside town centre plot, next to Carlisle Park, went to the open market and did not find the buyer the council wanted. The 108 spaces are what the site is being used for in the meantime, not the outcome that was originally sought.
Deputy leader Richard Wearmouth said the programme “has been very carefully planned so it can be carried out with the minimum of disruption, although naturally some will be inevitable when taking down a building of this scale”. Local ward councillor David Bawn said parking “is an issue” in the town and the extra spaces “will make a significant difference to shoppers and visitors”.
What it means for you
If you charge an EV in Morpeth, plan around it now. The Newmarket West charging points are out of use for the full three weeks of phase one, not just while machinery is on site.
If you park for the school run or a short shop, nothing changes elsewhere. The closure is one car park. Morpeth has 22 council car parks in total and the rest are operating normally.
The timing is deliberate. The council picked September to avoid the school holidays, when Carlisle Park is busiest, and to finish before Christmas trading. That means the disruption lands in term time, on weekday working hours.
Check before a weekend visit. The council says local residents, businesses and stakeholders have been notified, but it has published no day by day schedule. Streetworks and car park queries go to 0345 600 6400.
Related. Live closures and diversions across the county, including the Coopies Lane and Middlegate estate works in Morpeth this fortnight, are on our Northumberland roadworks and travel page.
Sources
- Northumberland County Council: work starts on Riverside building clearance to create more parking (7 September 2026) for the start date, the mid-November completion, the three week first phase, the one third closure after it, the 108 spaces and 10 motorcycle spaces, the public realm area, the food outlet relocation, the 8am to 4pm hours, the dust suppression condition, the failed marketing of the site, the £21m leisure centre and both quotes.
- Northumberland County Council: Morpeth car parks, last updated 13 August 2026, for the 22 council car parks in the town, which need a parking disc, which are all day, and the opening hours at Gas House Lane and Staithes Lane.
Have your say