Fans of the late author JG Ballard are proposing to rename a Watford town centre car park in his honour.

The science-fiction writer, who died on April 19, was famed for his dystopian fiction and two of his best known works – Crash and Empire of the Sun – were brought to the big screen by directors David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg respectively.

Ballard was reputedly a fan of Church car park because of its distinctive design with swirling ramp and criss-cross facade, and he once referred to Watford as “the Mecca of multi-storey car parks”. Scenes in Crash were also filmed in car parks across the town.

Steve Bowbrick, a blogger for BBC Radio 4, is now campaigning to rename the building after the writer.

The father-of-three, from Park Road, Radlett, said: “He's such an important figure and he's grown more so over the years. There's presently little literary interest in Watford. It doesn't come up very often. I just really enjoy the fact I have parked in that car park hundreds of times and I quite like it as well.

“I have always enjoyed JG Ballard and his off-beat take on suburban life. Car parks always have such boring names and it would be a prime reminder of the fella's importance.

“As a writer, he was really interested in not the mainstream but the edges of life. Wouldn't it be a brilliant way to remember him? There's a real cult around him.

“He would have loved the joke about naming somewhere like a car park about a famous author.”

Do you think the car park should be renamed after JG Ballard? Leave a comment below.