Medway Council is poised to reopen a public car park that was blocked off by a developer, a senior councillor has said. Union Place car park, behind Chatham High Street, remains closed after developer Donard Living erected fencing at its entrance two weeks ago. It left motorists with no access to the 49-space car park, which is only accessible through the site of the former Buzz Bingo owned by the developer. The fencing was coincidentally installed just days after Future Chatham revealed that Medway Council made a U-turn to no longer sell the car park for development. The car park was included in Donard Living's 231-home plans for the Buzz Bingo site, which were submitted earlier this month. The developer planned to buy the car park and it had therefore included it as part of the proposals. It is understood that access to the car park was set to remain open until at least the latter half of this year, which is when Donard Living hoped that development will begin. Although the car park remains shut for the foreseeable future, Medway Council is now looking into options to reopen it by creating a new entrance. Cllr Adrian Gulvin (Con), Medway Council's portfolio holder for resources, said the council has never had a legal right of access to Union Place car park and relied on permission from the adjacent land owners. He said: "It’s the Council’s intention to make a new entrance for the car park from New Road, & estimates for this have already been sought. "The car park serves many local businesses, so we are keen to get it opened again as soon as is possible." A surveyor was seen carrying out work with a laser level at the car park last week. A Medway Council spokesperson said: “We are liaising with the developer to see if access to the car park can be maintained. "We will also be looking into the possibility of creating new access to the car park from New Road.” The council continues to have no plans to sell the car park, the spokesperson added. Meanwhile, a spokesperson Donard Living said: “Now the outline planning application for the redevelopment of the former Buzz Bingo in Chatham is live, we are required by our insurers for both security and health and safety reasons to secure the site. "This will enable our contractors to undertake the necessary technical surveys and monitoring required for development and planning process." “The Council’s property team were notified 14 months ago of our intention to close access to the Buzz Bingo car park by email on 8 November 2021. “The hoardings will make the site safe and secure, which is of particular importance given recent incidents of antisocial behaviour in the area. “In relation to the situation of the sale of the car park, Donard’s management has not received a formal notification from the Council’s property team of its decision to no longer sell the car park and so we are unable to comment at this time.” Donard Living bought the former Buzz Bingo for an undisclosed sum in December 2021 with its finance partner Zetland Capital.
Last year, Medway Council considered options such as negotiating with Donard Living to maintain long-term access to its car park or to sell it to them, according to a Freedom of Information request by Future Chatham. Councillors were set to green light the closure of the car park at a Cabinet meeting last October, allowing it to be sold for development. However, the decision was deferred until a future meeting before the council confirmed that it no longer intended to sell the car park this month. Comments are closed.
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August 2023
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