Car park operator makes bid to avoid improvements
FOUNTAIN STREET OPERATOR SAID EXPECTING THEM TO INVEST IN THE FACILITY WAS UNREALISTIC GIVEN ITS DAYS WERE NUMBERED
operator of a car park used by Hull Royal Infirmary staff, patients and visitors is bidding to waive requirements that it improves the facility so it can keep operating.
An application lodged by Bank Parking for the Fountain Street car park is seeking to remove a planning condition requiring improvement works to keep operating beyond August 2024.
The company stated the desire for a marked out and lit car park reflected in previously approved applications did not take into account its uncertain future due to redevelopment plans.
It comes as a master plan to redevelop Hull Royal Infirmary’s Anlaby Road site has earmarked part of the existing car park for a new multi-storey facility. The rest has been set aside for unspecified future development.
The master plan, which was given the go ahead in January 2023, stated there would be no overall reduction in parking following the redevelopment, including, by keeping existing spaces next to Argyle Street.
But it added the master plan and future redevelopment meant the days of the existing car park were numbered. The company’s application seeks to remove a condition requiring improvements so that the car park could continue to operate until at least 2027.
Plans stated: “Decisions on previous applications on this site have reflected a desire to have a surfaced, marked out, lit car park. However, laudable though this aim may be it does not take account of the fact that when a car park has an unknown future, the operator is not going to make a large investment in improvements.
“Using resources and energy to carry out work which will be removed in the near future runs counter to the principles of sustainability. Renewal of the planning permission would assist the aim of the plan to provide adequate parking, but would not thwart the longer term aim to redevelop the site with a multi-storey car park and an unspecified built development.”