Council eyes November start date for Broadway car park demolition

A plan to demolish the problematic and dangerous Broadway car park has been logged with the council’s planning team.

The car park primarily for Nicholsons Shopping Centre, also known as the Nicholsons car park, has been fraught with issues since a health and safety scare forced its closure in the New Year.

It has ‘structural issues that are unable to be remedied,’ with rusting metal and is leaking through the roof.

The council – both the former and current administration – had to think carefully about whether to sink money into repairs to make it safe and functioning again.

One complication is that the whole area is set to be redeveloped as part of a wider regeneration plan for the shopping centre, granted planning consent in October 2022.

The consensus among councillors was that there was no point in saving the car park at this late stage.

This ongoing saga has caused much consternation among visitors to the town centre and businesses in particular, whose trade has taken a hit as a result of the loss of an important car park.

But refurbishing it would have cost has ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds – maybe up to a million’ the council’s cabinet noted in July.

That option was branded too late by the current cabinet member for highways and transport, Geoff Hill (TBFI, Oldfield), who said he proposed bolstering the structure a decade ago but was ignored.

As such, Broadway car park is now set to be demolished, at an estimated cost of about £3.15million.

RBWM Property Company Ltd are the ones putting in the application.

Owned by the council, the company manages a small property portfolio and acts as a property consultancy company for the regeneration of the borough.

On the application form, the stated reasons for the demolition are ‘Public health and safety due to structural issues’ and ‘ahead of any proposed development.’

Method of demolition is ‘to be confirmed following appointment of a specialist contractor’ but will be ‘most likely a high reach excavator with a grab, to ensure safety.’

It is expected to be reinstated as a temporary car park – a surface only car park – ‘until wider redevelopment is brought forward.’

The demolition is scheduled to begin on November 6 and is set to be completed by September 23, 2024 – though in fact, the demolition is only expected to take about six months.

It will require closure of the Broadway road for one week.

Nuisances such as noise and dust are set to be 'mitigated' as well as it can and rubble is to be removed off-site and recycled ‘where possible.’

The application seeks to determine whether prior approval will be required for demolition.

This style of planning application allows developers to bypass the full planning process, if certain conditions are met.