New public car park planned for Shaftesbury
75 spaces could be built on New Road
A new public car park for the centre of Shaftesbury could ease the town’s long-standing shortage of spaces.
Poole-based Britannia Parking wants to use the former ATS garage site in New Road to create a 75-space parking area, including electric vehicle charge points and spaces for motorhomes.
The town has long been short of suitable parking areas close to the shops, arts centre and other attractions.
The 0.2 hectare site, which has already been cleared, is opposite the town centre’s main car park in Bell Street.
Britannia say they would provide spaces for four motorhomes on the site with an entrance to the new car park on New Road and an exit onto Kings Hill with a short section of footway to be built along the north side of Bleke Street.
Planning agents for the parking company say the new use will be good news for the town: “The proposal in putting the site to a productive and active use includes new surfacing, and the planting of hedges and trees will reduce the openness over time. The initial bare openness of the site will be reduced over time as plants mature. This will provide both screening and softening of the site which has for many years stood open and unused.”
Past planning permissions for the site have included a 28-bed retirement home and a proposal for 24 homes.
Said a report to Dorset Council: “The site has been marketed for considerable periods but, residential development has not materialised. The conclusion is that this type of development is unviable.”
The planning agent for Britannia told the council: “Public car parking in Shaftesbury has been reduced markedly over a number of years. The loss of the town centre car park at Coppice Street and the overflow Cattle Market car park was initially partially offset by the Tesco car park offering up to 4 hours stay. This is no long the case. The Lidl development has seen further loss of parking. Meanwhile the public Bell Street car park has lost some 15 spaces in that time.
“Over this period (since 2001) the town has grown by around 3000 whilst accompanying a significant reduction in car spaces available for the public wishing to access the town centre.”