Council plans to transfer eyesore car park fail

A council has failed in its bid to pay a shopping centre owner to take on an old multi-storey car park.

Wiltshire Council had voted to pay the owner of Trowbridge's Castle Place Shopping Centre £2.5 million to take on the adjoining St Stephen's Place car park, demolish it and the shopping centre, and redevelop the site.

However, agreement from the full council was needed to release the funds and a vote on Wednesday saw the motion defeated by one vote as Conservative and Reform UK councillors voted against.

Following the vote, the Liberal Democrats accused the opposition of creating an £8 million car park repair bill " to score political points".

"We'll have to come back with some new ideas or a new approach and try to convince one more councillor that our position is the right way to go," said council leader Ian Thorn.

The 50-year-old car park is subject to a covenant between its owner and the owner of the shopping centre, that guarantees him the 400 free car parking spaces.

The council said that repairing the car park would only prolong its life for a few years and demolishing could cost between £8m and £9m.

Legal experts have advised the council that challenging the covenant in court has a less than 35% chance of success and losing would mean legal costs for the council, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Buying the shopping centre has also been considered but the council's cabinet member for economic development, Helen Belcher, told councillors that transferring ownership to the owner of Castle Place represented "the cheapest option with the lowest risk".

Conservative leader Richard Clewer said there were not enough figures to make an informed decision and questioned the benefits of the deal.

Chris Vaughan, Reform UK councillor for Trowbridge Park, who campaigned for the council to buy the shopping centre, said that the decision "was the right one," and said the vote "handed the council a great negotiating position."

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