Unpleasant smells are causing a bit of concern among the nation’s car-park users.

National Car Parks (NCP), which has two sites in Bradford, aims to diffuse the complaints by pumping the scent of freshly laundered linen sheets into stairwells at some of its sites in a bid to improve the customers’ experience.

The initiative was prompted by an NCP study which found that a third of car park customers would be unlikely to use a site again if it smelled unpleasant.

According to the study, 66 per cent of respondents found stairwells to be the worst-smelling area of car parks, with 35 per cent associating the area with a smell of urine.

NCP asked customers to vote for their preferred scent in an online poll with options including freshly cut grass, hot apple pie and leather.

NCP area manager Ernie Bagshaw said: “We started putting battery-operated odorisers in car parks which worked really well. I think the linen smell is a really good idea.

“They will have to be careful with their choice of smells and the way they would be pumped into the car park because of people suffering from things like asthma and hay fever.

“There’s nothing worse than having a bad smell.”

The NCP car parks in Hall Ings (pictured) and Thornton Road in Bradford are not involved in the initial trial.

Mr Bagshaw also said the company had not received any complaints about the smells at its sites in the city.

Customer Javid Arshad, 40, of Marlborough Road, Manningham, said: “I think the linen smell would be a great idea, or Armani after-shave.”

In March the Hall Ings car park began closing overnight which also might have reduced the problem of anti-social behaviour.

“We’re very clean people in Yorkshire,” Mr Bagshaw said.

“There are various smells that can affect a car park, including damp. Anything that can remove them is good.”

The linen scent will be piloted in four car parks, in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff, from the end of the month.