Co-op Live blasted for 'taking advantage' with £25 parking fee

The arena, which is close to the Etihad Stadium, has only one official car park, located next to it off Alan Turing Way, and parking spots must be pre-booked online ahead of an event.

But the standard fee of £25 has not gone down well with Mancunians, who have accused bosses there of 'taking advantage'.

It comes after the price of food and drinks at the venue - including an £8.95 Guinness and an £11.50 burger - have already been branded 'an absolute joke'.

Read more:Co-op Live was days from opening, then it all went wrong

Commenting on an article that mentioned the parking fee, one reader said: "Wow 25 quid for parking, £8.95 for a pint, such great Manchester value!"

And one ticket-holder, who will be visiting the site in June to watch The Killers, told us: "I was shocked when I found out it's going to cost me £25 to park. It feels like they're really taking advantage of drivers when the car is really my only option of getting there.

"It already costs so much to get tickets to these concerts, without having to pay so much extra on top of that."

It's not been a great start for the venue so far. A test event on Saturday had its capacity reduced from 11,000 to 4,000 at the last minute, forcing bosses to cancel tickets for the VIP event.

Then on Monday it was announced that the opening would not go ahead as planned on Tuesday evening, with Peter Kay's two performances - on Tuesday and Wednesday - rescheduled to next week.

It came as the building had yet to be signed off by the council, leaving emergency services with some concerns.

Describing the decision as 'regrettable', a Co-op Live spokesperson said 'the ambition and scale of this venue is enormous' and the rescheduling 'gives us the extra time we need to continue testing thoroughly'.

Parking has already proved a sore spot. We reported earlier how dozens of residents living near Co-op Live and the Etihad had been 'incorrectly given parking tickets' creating a 'weeks long appeals backlog'.

A new residents' parking scheme for the Eastlands area was launched alongside the 23,500-capacity venue's opening on Saturday, replacing an existing scheme in place for event days at the Etihad Stadium nearby.

It was brought in to clamp down on gig-goers and football fans causing problems for locals by parking on residential roads.

However, 159 parking tickets were handed out over the Co-op Live opening weekend by enforcement officers, with residents saying visitors to their homes had been wrongly fined.

There's also been confusion over the operational hours of the programme, and one councillor said they were contacted by a motorist who was fined for parking across a driveway when it was their own driveway.

There are other ways to get to the venue other than by car, with tram, bus, train and walking details included here.

A spokesperson for Co-op Live said: "Official off-street parking at Co-op Live is available to book no sooner than four weeks prior to the event, and our prices are in line with the wider live entertainment sector.

"We also encourage fans who are able to, to consider sustainable travel options including integrated transport tickets for fans across the Metrolink network, post-event shuttle buses, and use of the regenerated CityLink walking route."

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