'We have no appetite for building multi storey car parks'

Planning permission has already been granted for the proposed 372-space car park at St George’s Field.

But the controversial scheme ran into multiple problems.

A contract with an external contractor was scrapped last year – and a decision on whether to go ahead with the car park was delayed after hundreds of people signed a petition against it.

Now, in an interview with The Press, City of York Council’s new leader Claire Douglas has administered what seem to be the last rites to the project.

“We have no appetite for building additional multi-storey car parks in the city centre,” she said.

Cllr Douglas said there would need to be an ‘overview’ of parking capacity in the city centre.

She said that would include looking at whether the city already had enough parking spaces – and whether, for example, Park & Rides could be used more efficiently.

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• Challenges force council to put St George's car park bid on hold
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“We need to be using the existing parking space that we do have more efficiently,” she said. “We need to make sure that people who drive into the city centre are directed to the right place.”

Part of the reason for the new Labour administration’s reluctance to build new car parks may be that it accepts that, in order to meet ambitious zero carbon targets by 2030 - which it is committed to - there will need to be a 20 per cent reduction in car and other vehicle journeys in York.

The new St George’s Field car park, however, was being proposed partly to replace the parking at Clifford’s Tower, which is set to ultimately be closed under plans to regenerate the area around the castle.

So if the new car park is not going to be built, does that mean plans for the regeneration of the Eye of York are also being abandoned?

Artist's impression of how a new public square at the Eye of York could look (Image: Planning documents)

No, insisted Cllr Douglas. Closing the Castle car park and creating a new ‘public realm’ at the Eye of York is still very much on the agenda – though she described it as a ‘medium’ rather than ‘high’ priority.

She would still hope to see progress on that in a few years, she said.

But, since the council’s latest bid for levelling up finding failed earlier this year, the authority would need to be ‘more creative’ about finding ways to pay for it.

Devolution and the coming of a new regional combined authority for York and North Yorkshire with its own directly-elected Mayor might provide an opportunity to attract funding in different ways, she said.

But she stressed that Labour was committed to the regeneration of the Eye of York.

“It (the Castle car park) does not look great!” she said.