Trafford Centre's first pay for car park opens for business - this is how Premium Parking looks

It is the dawn of a new era at the Trafford Centre - as the first pay-for car park has now opened to customers. The vast shopping mall has previously offered all free parking across its 18 car parks.

But now, Premium Parking has been launched in order to give shoppers the option of an "elevated experience" with larger spaces right next to one of the main entrances into the mall. The new pay-for parking has been created at a section of the Upper Peel 5 car park next to Selfridges.

Shopping centre bosses insist there are no plans to make any other pay-for parking zones, and say there are still 11,500 free spaces for shoppers to use across the estate.

READ MORE: Angry drivers slam NCP after hundreds trapped inside city centre car park

The new Premium Parking area launched on Wednesday, with a quiet start on a sunny day in Greater Manchester. The barriers are now fully in place, marking out the new area that motorists will now need to pay for to use.

They also have digital screens at this entry point showing you how many available spaces there are on that day for those opting to drive-up to pay.

Off peak parking, which is Monday to Friday, will see you pay from £4 an hour to park there. Peak parking is classed as weekends (Saturday and Sunday) where the parking rate starts from £7 an hour.

However the longer you stay the cheaper the hourly rate becomes - with a maximum stay of 12 hours costing £14 on weekdays and £21 on weekends. You can also add on valet parking and car cleaning packages - where the price of parking is included.

But these are definitely premium cleaning packages - as the cheapest clean you can opt for is the "Luxe Valet" for £96. If you are going the whole hog, an "Ultra Valet" deep clean will costs you