Following an Extraordinary Cabinet meeting held on the evening of Wednesday 24 January, Havant Borough Council has committed to the demolition of Bulbeck Road Car Park as part of its ambitious plan to help regenerate Havant town centre.
Following increasingly low usage, rising anti-social behaviour and burgeoning maintenance costs, the car park will be demolished, and redeveloped for housing. Havant Borough Council plans to engage an agent to assist with the disposal of the site. The site will be sold with conditions to ensure that it doesn’t sit idle for an extended period and any new buyer will have to demonstrate that a development will come forward as quickly as possible after demolition.
The demolition of the site is being funded from a £1.6m grant awarded to Havant Borough Council by the Department for Housing and Levelling Up (DLHUC), that will see the car park demolished and the slab that it sits on crushed. As a result of this, the expectation is that the investment will attract a strong field of developers for the site.
The use of this car park has been low for several years and sufficient surplus capacity exists in the nearby car park within the Meridian Shopping Centre. The lack of use has attracted significant anti-social behaviour (ASB) with Hampshire Constabulary being called to deal with 58 instances of ASB in the past 12 months.
Councillor Alex Rennie - Leader of Havant Borough Council - said "I'm delighted to see work progress on this key site within Havant town centre. Not only does it show the council's commitment to its regeneration agenda, but it will also makes best use of the site. The world has moved on since the car park was first built, and there's genuine opportunity to use the site in a way that benefits residents and businesses alike."
For more information on the Bulbeck Road Car Park site - and the council's regeneration agenda as a whole - visit www.havant.gov.uk/regeneration.