MONSTERS have taken over Festival Place to mark the end of a multi-million-pound project.

The Basingstoke shopping centre has taken the chance to show off the makeover to its car park with a monster invasion.

The extensive refurbishment has seen the old, under-used car park next Alencon Link demolished and rebuilt, with a complete refurbishment programme, both internally and externally across the rest of the car park.

New features include; directional signage, bay monitoring lights, a find-your-car system, new surfaces and coloured zones, repositioned disabled and family bays, and the installation of electric charging points.

To mark the completion of the work, colourful monsters have taken over the car park to help show off the new features, and there will be a giant inflatable monster on the roof.

Children can follow monster footprints into the centre, where they will be able to spot monster characters roaming around this weekend.

Marketing manager at Festival Place, Emily Palmer, said: “The monstrous makeover has finally finished and what better way to celebrate than with a monster takeover around Festival Place.

“Monster characters will be roaming through the centre and there will be a monster map trail for families to follow.

“There will also be the opportunity to win free parking for a month by entering a draw on the Festival Place website.”

The new-look car park now has five parking zones coloured to match the lobbies attached to them, which aims to make it easier for drivers to remember where they have left their vehicles.

Festival Place centre director, Neil Churchill, said: “The car park has been designed by a team of specialists, and we have had lots of input along the way as we have received feedback from customers. The plans changed as we thought of better, more practical ways of doing things.”

He added: “Everything has been designed to make the customer’s experience a lot easier, and this will now be one of the best car parks in the south from a shopping centre perspective.

“We’ve had lots of positive feedback from customers as we’ve gone through the process, who are really liking the changes we’ve made.”