A car park on the edge of Chatham town centre will no longer be sold for development after Medway Council backtracked on its plans.
Union Place car park, off New Road, was earmarked to be closed and sold, as part of a 231-home proposal by developer Donard Living for the former Buzz Bingo next to it. Councillors were set to green light the closure of the 49-space car park at a Cabinet meeting on 18 October last year, allowing it to be sold off for development. However, the decision was deferred until a future meeting and now the council has confirmed that it no longer intends to sell the car park.
The car park can only be accessed through the privately-owned bingo hall site, which closed in 2020 and was bought by Donard Living's finance partner, Zetland Capital, a year later.
The council considered options such as negotiating with the owner of the bingo site to maintain long-term access or to sell it to them, according to a Freedom of Information request by Future Chatham. Before submitting its planning application last month, Donard Living said that it planned to purchase the council-owned car park and it had therefore been included within the proposed development. However, it's now unclear what impact the council's U-turn will have on Donard Living's planning application, and whether or not the developer will continue to pursue its proposals in their current form.
Objections to the planning application have already been lodged by residents and business owners, who aired their concerns about the impact of the car park's closure on local businesses and community facilities.
Spotlites Theatre Company, a youth theatre located next to the car park, was among those fearing for the future of its business due to the potential development of the car park. In response to the news that the car park will no longer be sold, Spotlites Theatre Company described it in a Facebook post as a "big win" and said that it "does ease some of the stress and concerns this coming development was causing".
The Facebook post by the theatre company said: "So the car park is no longer for sale, and will not be sold to Donard. However we still need to to deny current planning permission involving the carpark, and we still need to be wary about access to the car park.
"The only access at the moment is through the buzz bingo car park, which is Donards property, and they can block this access when they like. So we need to ensure the council work on getting new access created, and whilst that is happening have current access remain open. "We do want to say, despite not being able to see eye to eye with Donard their offer to provide us with a rent free venue is something we are truly grateful for. They didn't have to work with us, but they did and we did all try to come to an amicable agreement." The plans for the Buzz Bingo site are due to be decided by Thursday, 6 April and can be viewed here on Medway Council's Planning Portal. Donard Living has been approached for comment. Comments are closed.
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