MORE than £200,000 of improvement works are needed on two ageing multi-storey car parks, according to a council report.

Councillors will be asked to approve the spend to fund vital maintenance on the Ryemarket carpark in Stourbridge and Pool Road carpark in Halesowen - both of which date back to the 1970s.

Strengthening and repair work has been ordered after Dudley Council carried out a routine inspection on the car parks which are made of concrete.

Work on Stourbridge's run-down Ryemarket car park is expected to start in the next few weeks and will include an extra £38,000 to repair the leaking roof which has caused one of the lifts to stop working.

Engineers, meanwhile, have already started work on the Halesowen car park and it is expected to take several months to complete.

Both car parks will remain open during the work which Councillor Karen Shakespeare, Dudley's cabinet member for environmental, highways and street services, has said is essential to ensure the car parks "remain open and safe for people to use".

She added: "These car parks were designed in the 1970s, so inevitably we are at the stage where they need to be repaired.

"Stourbridge, in particular, needs a lot of work to also deal with the leaking roof, which is why I have asked for extra resources.

"Over recent weeks the leaking roof has stopped the operation of one of the lifts servicing the car park, which we know is used regularly, and we hope to have this fully operational after the work to the roof is completed.

"However, we need a longer-term solution to ensure everything is in full working order for many years to come.

"I have also asked for the car parks to remain open during the work to minimise the disruption for motorists as much as possible.”

The works will also see spaces in the car parks widened - likely much to the relief of motorists - which council chiefs say may lead to a small reduction in spaces.

Cllr Shakespeare said the multi-storey facilities "were not designed to cater for larger modern vehicles" and she added: "Once this work is complete I am sure people will benefit from the extra room and improved access to our town centres.”

Engineers will be cordoning off areas of the car parks before repairing and strengthening the floors, ceilings and columns.

Councillors will be asked at next Thursday's cabinet meeting on June 27 to give approval for the works which are to be funded over two years from revenue resources.