A New Malden car park has been forced to shut down earlier due to antisocial behaviour.

The multi-storey Blagdon Road car park run by Kingston Council will now shut down three hours earlier than it used to following a spat between youths and a staff member last week.

A Kingston Council spokesman said it was “a relatively low-level incident” but discussions were being had with police.

He said: “The incident in question involved a staff member being verbally abused. While this was a relatively low-level incident, we take any abuse of our staff very seriously and we are working with the police to review how we and they respond to such incidents.

“Unfortunately, there is an issue of low-level antisocial behaviour in the evenings, and particularly in the summer months.”

He added that the council-run surface level Malden Centre car park in Cocks Crescent nearby would remain open 24 hours a day and called it “a more pleasant environment for customers”.

But Councillor Simon James said: “I am not particularly impressed with the police who seem to say antisocial behaviour has nothing to do with them – given that in this instance there were people throwing stuff from the multi storey car park. But we are working with the police.”

In the meantime, Blagdon car park, which has 550 spaces and allows blue badge holders and those with disabilities to park for free, will now close at 7pm instead of 10pm.

Just two weeks ago Kingston police pledged to stamp out antisocial behaviour which has blighted the nearby Blagdon Park as part of their summer initiative.