Anger at 'loud' Portsmouth city centre Nexus car park alarm repeatedly going off all night

That was the beleaguered message as weary residents have been kept awake throughout the night by a ‘loud’ alarm at Crasswell Street car park that has been going off from 7pm to 10am the following morning.

The former city centre NCP car park that is now run by Group Nexus has left people tearing their hair out for over a month.

Nearby resident Natasha Birley, 36, said the alarm is only turned off the next day when someone turns up at the site to work.

And despite numerous desperate out of hours calls, the local said you cannot speak to anyone – and are just told it has been reported to a manager.

It comes after complaints of the lift not working, previously reported by The News, sparked a row between Group Nexus and NCP over who was to blame.

Natasha, speaking of her frustration, told The News the alarm goes off every time someone uses the fire exit stairwell now: ‘It’s dreadful. The alarm keeps going off and is very loud and disruptive even with the double glazed windows.

‘I have contacted them directly on their out of hours number and am just getting told we have reported it to a manager. The thing is it goes off all night until someone comes in the morning roughly around 9-10am.

‘When it goes off you know you are in for an all-nighter. You literally have that feeling of dread. It’s a nightmare. It’s impacting my sleep and my mood.

‘Lots of other people have complained. We just want it to stop.’

She added: ‘There are kids playing on skateboards there who no one can get rid of and whop set it off. One of the entrances used to be shut down but is now always open so why set the alarm?’

Natasha said the alarm was never an issue before when NCP was managing the site.

‘We never had this problem when NCP had the car park, yes the alarm went off every once in a while but it was dealt with quickly. They had someone in the area who could come and turn it off so it would only be going off for maybe an hour.

‘We’re not getting heard by Nexus. We’ve still got the lift problem too.’

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A spokesman for Group Nexus said: ‘We are aware of an issue with a faulty sounder and are in the process repairing it.

‘Following our previous response regarding the lift, this is also in the process of being fixed, and explanatory signage remains on site.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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