Unprofitable car parks could be sold, says council

Car parks in parts of Surrey could be closed or sold off if they do not make money, a council has warned.

Surrey Heath Borough Council (SHBC), which has to find an additional £4m a year to cover interest payments on loans for property investments, had said it faced "difficult choices" to deal with "substantial" financial challenges.

Alan Ashberry, portfolio holder for parking services, told the council's performance and finance scrutiny committee that parking was a "discretionary service".

He said: "This council's precarious financial state means that if a discretionary service is not being funded by those that use it, it should be discontinued and not subsidised by council tax payers."

The council was advised that £300,000 a year should be spent on maintaining its car park but that over the course of the past decade "not a fraction of that money has been spent", leaving the authority with "a very large number of unresolved issues".

It comes amid calls for SHBC to lower parking charges by those saying it has impacted town centre footfall, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

Mr Ashby argued this was not the case and the reduction was more in line with national behaviour shifts, adding the percentage of people coming into towns and using car parks in the borough had actually increased.

Last year SHBC car parks generated £1.8m in revenue.

But that was not enough to cover the cost of keeping them open and fit for purpose.

The council has spent about £600,000 on new lifts and stairwell refurbishments across its sites.

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