Brent Cross Shopping Centre has taken steps to ensure Olympics attendees do not use its car park in place of its shoppers.

The Hammerson-owned shopping centre took the measures to ensure that its regular shoppers will be able to park there.

Brent Cross general manager Tom Nathan said:“Brent Cross is protecting free parking for shoppers. Only people cheekily using the car park en route to other venues could face costs.”

Facilities management firm Creative Parking which is handling the measures has invested £500,000 in the scheme.It has erected 300 temporary warning signs to ward off people attending Olympic events from using its car park.

It will also deploy patrol vehicles and monitor cameras to ensure the area is used solely by the centre’s shoppers.

The centre will allow a maximum parking duration of five hours with drivers who stay beyond this period being fined.

Bosses at the north London shopping centre are concerned those attending Olympic events at Lord’s Cricket Ground and Wembley Stadium will use the parking facilities.

Gary Wayne, managing director of Creative Parking, said: “Our scheme has been carefully designed to ensure that regular visitors and customers can continue to use Brent Cross as normal during what is expected to be an exceedingly busy period.

“We have worked hard to design a scheme that will assist the centre management team at Brent Cross to ensure swift ingress and egress for shopper’s vehicles and a plentiful availability of parking spaces whenever possible.”