Parking charges are set to be introduced at the car park for the Office Outlet store and Better Gym on Russell Road in Ipswich – if the site owners are given planning permission to introduced pay and display machines.

The large car park is for the exclusive use of shoppers while at the Office Outlet store – formerly Staples – or the gym, but it has been used by people calling in to Suffolk County Council’s Endeavour House, Ipswich Council’s Grafton House or the Crown Court – sometimes leaving users with a hefty fee if they are caught parking wrongly.

Now the car park operators, Nectar Asset Management, has applied to the borough for permission to install three pay and display machines at the site.

It says it would operate the area as a short-term car park and users of the gym and the Office Outlet store would have their parking fees refunded – at present it is sometimes used as an unauthorised long-stay car park.