New £1million car park proposed for Alnwick

At its meeting on Tuesday, December 8, Northumberland County Council’s decision-making cabinet is recommended to approve £960,000 for a permanent 196-space car park on part of the former Duchess’s Community High School site.

A temporary car park was established on part of the site, off Howling Lane, in February 2019, with the report to councillors stating that monitoring by the council’s civil enforcement officers shows that it was well-used, particularly in the summer months, when it was often full.

The proposed investment is based on the recommendations of the parking study carried out in the town in 2017, which found that, in order to bring car-park occupancy down to the recommended operational maximum of 85% at peak times, a total of 640 parking spaces are required, compared with the existing 490, a minimum increase of 150 spaces.

The study also recommended that long-stay parking in town-centre car parks should be converted to short-stay ‘to increase turnover in order to improve capacity and benefit the town-centre economy’.

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The report notes that while some progress has been made on this, with the conversion of Greenwell Lane part A from long to short-stay bays, ‘an important caveat which has prevented further conversion was that alternative long-stay provision should be sought within reasonable walking distance of the town centre to ensure staff can access their jobs, to avoid a transfer of parking to surrounding streets and to cater for the important visitor market’.

Even the loss of the 72 long-stay spaces in Greenwell Lane part A was controversial when it came into effect in 2018, sparking a call to introduce workers’ parking permits in the town, backed by an almost 400-name petition.

However, this was not backed by the council’s petitions committee, with reasons including that the authority was investigating potential sites for additional long-stay parking and the introduction of a 24-hour maximum stay restriction in long-stay car parks to ‘address the issue of those who garage their vehicles for long periods of time’.

The report recommending the funding for the new car park says that ‘the scope for additional long-stay parking within walking distance of the town centre is severely restricted by the existing built environment and conservation area status of the town’, which means that the old school site ‘represents a significant opportunity to provide this much-needed facility’.

It explains that the location is 280 metres from the town centre ‘which is well within reasonable walking distance’ and that there are already signs in place both to direct pedestrians to the town centre from the car park and to direct vehicles to the site.

The new car park, which would include disabled bays and electric vehicle charging points, would be built to the right of the site entrance, which would be widened to accommodate two-way traffic flow and a short section of access road created.

A pedestrian connection is also proposed to Ratten Row to the north, ‘which will be suitable for visitors to Alnwick Castle and other attractions in that area of the town’.

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