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Drivers have spoken. Tuesday morning revealed that car park operators are the enemy, and this has to be an urgent wake-up call before the sector is doomed to failure. Travel to any city in England, and you're bound to notice the yellow National Car Parks (NCP) badge hovering around town. They really are a market leader, with over 340 sites across the country. If they can fall into administration, so can any operator.

You'd expect news of 682 jobs being placed at risk to elicit a negative, empathetic reaction. You'd be wrong. In the hours following the news of NCP's decline, motorists quickly took to the internet to celebrate the news, just as you would expect the death of a dictator.

Motorists claimed the brand had been "ripping people off for years", in car parks that "smell like sewers". Sites were blasted as "dirty, dark and neglected". Another critic added that NCP was unlikely to get much sympathy from motorists after "thumping" drivers with sky-high prices for years.

The company was slammed as a "greedy, grabbing company" with one road user claiming they were "nothing but a blight on society". The reaction really has been that strong.

Drivers need parking operators. Where else would drivers leave their vehicles while visiting the cinema, theatre, or going on holiday? Car parks are an essential service. There's only one problem. The trust has gone. Location is also crucial; the one NCP car park near me is down a road known to be a high-crime area. That's not filling me with confidence to leave my car there.

It's now clear that motorists only see car park firms as cash-hungry fat cats filling their pockets with revenues, slapping drivers with fines and not re-investing in their own product. Drivers are left wondering where the money has gone. Now, would this news have been welcomed in the same way if car parks had changed their approach?

I'm sure drivers wouldn't be wielding pitchforks if they felt like their money had gone to use, allowing them to park in revamped, clean, well-ventilated car parks priced at affordable rates in safe spaces close to town and city centres.

The UK high street is crying out for responsible parking operators, and some existing firms have proven they are capable of destroying local businesses with pricing strategies and rigid enforcement of rules that only put visitors off from ever wanting to step foot in a town again.

Just under half of 11,000 road users polled by the AA said that having to pay more than £5 for parking would put them off. A DirectLine study found as many as three in five drivers have been deterred from visiting their high street due to parking fees.

PwC, the administrators appointed to NCP, explained that a decline in parking demandsince 2020 was partly to blame for the car park giant's downfall. Drivers are turning their backs on it all, and who's to blame them?

Action needs to be taken now. Sort it out or allow total collapse. NCP's decline might be the wake-up call parking firms truly needed.