Car park reopens amidst questions over its future

A 50-year-old multi-storey car park reopened over the weekend after repairs to make it safe - at the same time, there is a political fight over its future.

A covenant legally agreed on in the 1970s requires the council covering Trowbridge, Wiltshire, to provide free parking for the Castle Place Shopping Centre next door.

However, the repairs will only keep it safe for a short time and it will eventually need demolishing and rebuilding at a cost of millions.

The agreement is void if the same body owns both the centre and the parking, but a deal to surrender the car park to the centre was voted against at a council meeting.

The multi-storey at St Stephen's place in Trowbridge has more than 400 spaces and was officially opened in 1973.

It was closed for a few months to allow for repairs to keep it open into 2027, until the new leisure centre opens in the town.

Free parking from Wiltshire Council is not available in most towns in the county.

The future of the car park site is in limbo after the vote which would have seen the car park "surrendered".

The deal negotiated was for the council to pay £2.5m as a surrender for the centre owner to take the covenant and car park, demolish it and plan for redevelopment.

If the council keeps it, it will have to finance the multi-storey which will not last much longer. To rebuild would be £8m or more.

The Liberal Democrat-led council has to decide if it wants to bring it back to council or find a way to finance work itself.

Councillor Helen Belcher OBE is the cabinet member covering council assets: "We have a big building to maintain with no means of raising any income to meet the maintenance bills.

"It's in a tricky location so then we have fairly substantial costs associated with demolition let alone rebuild. Nobody in their right mind is going to pay to acquire this."

The Conservatives said there has not been enough transparency, that the proposed deal was done "behind closed doors".

Conservative Councillor Dominic Muns said they wanted to "critique the deal properly" and that there was not enough "exploration of other ideas".

Ms Belcher said it is an "established process through the council" which the previous administration did many times. She called it "political point-scoring".

One idea was for the council to buy the shopping centre, so it would have control over the whole site. However the owner, who bought it in 2024, is not interested in selling.

Chris Vaughan, a Reform councillor in Trowbridge, said the situation is difficult, but wants more certainty on future plans, saying they do not want to see the site flattened, creating "this massive bombsite" then finding out it is not viable for development.

Shopping centre owner, Tahir Ali, has unexpectedly found himself in the midst of the politics.

He explained architects have drawn up plans if the site were to be redeveloped.

If a deal happened, the intention would be for a leisure development with housing. For example, something like a bowling alley or trampoline park.

He has worked with councils before and usually a deal would be confidential, but after a document was leaked last year, lots is now public.

Mr Ali started negotiations before the current administration came into power - the previous one was Conservative-led.

He added that he "enjoys working with local councils, to leave a legacy behind".

When he first bought it, he had no interest in acquiring the car park and has put off arrangements that would get more business into the shopping centre in order to negotiate with the council.

He explained it would be a surrender deal with him taking on the liability.

If it had gone through, he would not get the money all at once - it would be in instalments as requirements are fulfilled, such as safely demolishing the car park.

Mr Ali said it would "bind" his company to redeveloping it as well.

"If certain things weren't done within a certain period of time, then effectively we lose that money."

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