When you leave your car parked you want to know it will be safe and sound – but surely this is taking it to extremes.

Residents around the London Road multi-storey car park in Brighton have complained a £3 million revamp project has left it looking like a "fortress".

The new look facility has been fitted with automatic shutters and completely surrounded by wire mesh, designed to make it impossible for anyone to get in without a ticket.

And just in case that is not safe enough, negotiations are underway for Sussex Police to set up a new office at the car park.

Drivers arriving at the site, in Providence Place, are greeted by a towering wall of concrete and metal.

Christina Summers, from campaign group Another London Road, said: "It's not particularly beautiful and it hasn't made that area any nicer to look at. It's good that they've done something about security but it's a shame they haven't done something to make it look less like a fortress."

The car park's owners Brighton and Hove City Council, who carried out the revamp, said it wanted to make it a safe and secure environment for visitors to the city.

It has also renovated the interior with new lights and signs and repaired the concrete walls as well as carrying out work to get rid of smells and fitting pigeon deterrents.

The project was launched in response to complaints the car park had become a hang-out for drug abusers and was dangerous for drivers.

Yesterday the council said it would consider doing something to improve the appearance of the building.

A spokesman said it was "looking into" the possibility of adding colour or greenery but said no funds were available for it at present.

He said wider development plans for the regeneration of the London Road area meant the works were only carried out with immediate safety and security needs in mind and "very limited scope for aesthetics".

The revamp was designed to give drivers a better experience but the council has budgeted for it to make an extra £50,000 this year with the improvements in place.

It hopes to take in £385,000 in the 2009/10 financial year, compared to £334,234 in 2008/9 and £312,816 in 2007/8.

Mrs Summers said the council needed to reduce charges to prevent the car park from being underused as it has been in recent months.

Charges at London Road were increased earlier this year. The rate for two hours jumped by 40p from £1.30 to £1.70.

The council has also carried out a major refurbishment at the underground The Lanes car park, off King's Road, where all of the staircases have been closed off to prevent people using them for antisocial and illegal activities. The only access to and from the facility will now be by a lift.

Despite the investment the council has blamed a deficit of £387,000 in its Environment and Transport budget last year on a shortfall in car park customers.