A YORK businessman who owns a number of enterprises across the city has ventured into providing self-storage for students and businesses.

Graham Kennedy, owner of business group Inner Space Stations, which owns the Hull Road BP garage and car wash, has invested £40,000 in new storage containers at the Hull Road site.

Mr Kennedy said he came up with the idea after transporting his daughter’s belongings to and from Nottingham, where she attends university.

He said he started looking into how the garage could service the increasing number of students that use the business from the University of York’s nearby Heslington campus.

He has converted the bottom end of the site with specialist storage containers, featuring 40 lockers for students and other containers of different sizes for businesses. He said the business intended to expand its space as units got taken up.

He said the service station was an ideal location for the new venture, being staffed 24/7 and with constant CCTV.

“I don’t know of any other service station in the UK that has this service and I don’t think anybody can offer the access that we do. We expect a lot of interest to come in the summer when all the students go home,” he said.