Special Constituency Meeting – Update
There was a special constituency meeting yesterday evening to confirm that Sutton Coldfield councillors have proposed the disposal of three town centre car parks and that the money made from such a sale would be used toward the cost of repairs and development of the library building.
Following the initial formalities presentations were made by Gary Ladbrooke (Service Integration Head) and Karl Randall (Highways) which contained a number of interesting facts and figures.
Gary began with an overview of how the current situation arose and reminded those present of the difficult situation that had been created by the terms of the lease which had been signed in the 1970s.
In brief, the terms mean that the council have to continue paying the rent on the building, regardless of whether it is occupied or not, until 2073. The lease all requires that any maintenance of and repairs to the building are carried out by the council and that if this is not complied with the landlord will carry out such work and bill the council. Needless to say, this would result in a much higher cost.
The three options presented at the last constituency meeting were touched upon again and it was confirmed that the second of these had been chosen.
The first option was to carry out the basic work required to remove the asbestos and make the building safe but without redevelopment or refurbishment, effectively mothballing the building, at a cost of £600,000. The building would remain empty and the annual rent would continue to be paid as would council tax.
The second option, at a cost of £2.5million is to reinstate the library with some redevelopment of the building and the use of some of the space to accommodate other council facilities such as the Neighbourhood Office.
The third, was the more ambitious £3.9million project that involved the integration of office space with a new library.
The committee was informed that the disposal of the car parks would raise around £1.67million toward the cost of the work but it was pointed out that such action would be based on a previous car park review which identified the car parks as surplus and was irrespective of the need to pay for the library.
It was also stressed that the constituency committee was not in a position to make the decision to sell but could only make a recommendation which would then go to cabinet on the 5th March.
Some facts and figures
The three car parks have a total capacity of 172 which breaks down as: Mill Street 23 spaces, Station Street 119 spaces and Sutton Coldfield Town Hall 30 spaces.
Total capacity for council car parks that serve the town centre is 854
There are also four large private car parks and number of smaller ones providing a further 1233 spaces.
Numerous (defined at the meeting as up to a hundred) surveys carried out at peak times showed that there was at least 274 underused spaces.
In addition to the current spaces work on the Victoria Street multi-storey car park will provide a further 50 new spaces.
If 50% of displaced cars parked in the other council car parks there would still be 80 free spaces at peak times.
If 100% of displaced cars parked in the remaining council car parks there would still be half-dozen or so free spaces at peak time.
Peak time was given as when the car parks are busiest and not a defined time range such as 9am to 5pm.
The cost of required repairs to Station Street car park is estimated at £70,000.
Sutton Coldfield car parks serving the town centre are run at a loss.
Mill Street car park is on the southern edge of the conservation area and any development must be sensitive to this fact.
A question was raised regarding the surveys, which were all carried out during the day, not taking into consideration the evening economy. Some of the car parks, including Victoria Street, are closed at night and therefore the displacement figures as given would not add up.
The committee agreed that this was a good point and would be looked into.
The plans of a bus and train station interchange was also raised and whether this would no longer be a possibility with the selling off of the land in Station Street.
The committee explained that this was part of the original Regeneration Framework and was an “aspiration”. It was not confirmed that this was still a possibility.
The next Constituency Committee Meeting will be held on March 19th at 7:30pm
Tags: BCC, local government, the town centre
14 Responses
Richard
Najm, thanks. Did the committee make a recommendation?
najm
Hi Richard, the committee support the proposal and a recommendation is going to cabinet for the next meeting in March
Keith
Though the surveys were quoted to be ” up to 100 ” on the relevant survey handed out the dates were in fact numbering two . One , a Sunday in August 2008 and the other Tuesday the 7th of February 2012 . Hardly ” peak ” times . I would suggest that if a relevant survey was to be taken into account perhaps the dates of these ” up to 100 ” days when the number of free spaces were counted should be properly reported and verified by someone without a vested interest in the sale of said car parks . In the official report ” an outside survey was deemed not needed” . Furthermore one one the car parks which is not being looked at at sold , South Parade ,shows a very low occupancy and must as such be contributing greatly to the £70k loss the council is claiming to make . How come this car park has just had £50k spent on it whilst Station Street ( the busiest and you would imagine therefore the most profitable ) has had no money spent on it though it clearly needs re-surfacing . It is no wonder it’s occupancy is going down when the surface is so pitted and at times bits of it are coned off . I for one think the public who use these car parks should be informed of the decision to consider their sale before any action is taken and I would also suggest that a report is done showing fully how they are occupied at all times of day and night and how much profit or loss each individual car park is making .
Michael
The figures do suggest that the car parks wont be missed, but it just seems a waste, selling all that land just to be able to remove asbestos and ‘do-up’ the library.
Michael
Un-related but great news about Cerys Edwards. Shame they cant send the idiot who caused the accident back to prison for a life sentence tho.
Tom
It does not sound as if any consideration is being given to the fact that all 3 of the proposed car parks are at the north end of the town, and thus the effect on businesses there will be far greater than elsewhere.
Claims that car parks are run at a loss are just creative accounting. The council owns the car parks, the council makes money from the car parks, the council makes money from businesses whose trade is boosted by the car parks. Where is this mythical “loss”?
daud
They just want everyone out of the car parks and into street parking which would be much more expensive.
And the idea the councils spend money for the betterment of the community, is laughable.
Nigel
Tom. Well said, add in the revenue raised by the parking fines handed out by the men that patrol on their mopeds, that must be a nice little earner too.
This whole affair, from start to finish, is disgusting.
Richard
Daud, there is hardly any street parking in the centre of Sutton. And any money raised will be spent on the library – isn’t that for the benefit of the community?
peter
Interesting to read that the town management are critical of the plans while at the same time providing £3000 towards the cost of changing the signs.
Michael
Wouldnt it be better to sell off the car park opposite plantsbrook school? a developer can build quite a few houses on there. Or even better, why cant the council build the houses and have the profit for themselves.
Houses around there can fetch £250k+, if they can fit 10 houses and a few flats, thats £2.5million+ (minus construction costs) all for the loss of just one car park which is no-where near the shops and offices in the town centre.
*all figures are off the top of my head and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Rich b
Bad news for town center roads that are already subjected to lack of parking for residents – while road being one of them – will the council be looking to combat this by adding additional roads to the ‘residents parking scheme’?
Philip Aucott
cant help but feel the loss of the car parks will not help with the parking issues, surely the council own a piece of land less useful that could be sold off for development?
Richard
I note Cllr Mullaney (Cabinet member for Leisure) on the Restirred forum boasting about the large sums of money he has secured for King’s Heath Library. This is especially galling in light of recent discussions about the sale of our car parks.
Has he ever done anything for Sutton Coldfield? And, more pertinently, isn’t it about time the combined Tory councillors of Sutton, including a Cabinet member, start using some political muscle on behalf of the town?
http://www.restirred.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2366