THOUSANDS of pounds will be spent on a drab multi-storey car park after it was identified as the key to Cheltenham's future as a shopping destination.
Grosvenor Terrace car park has been rebranded as Town Centre East (TCE) and will undergo a £120,000 revamp this year. Cheltenham Borough Council, which leases the facility, has already committed £30,000 to making the car park better.
And the £150,000 total investment will be spent on making TCE a nicer and more appealing place for motorists to leave their vehicles.
The cash will be spent on making the car park greener, with rainwater harvesting and the use of photovoltaic solar panels being considered.
A portion of the money will also be spent on improving and clearing up the car park's linkages to the High Street.
Councillor John Rawson (LD, St Peters), cabinet member for finance and deputy leader of the council, said: "This work is part of an ongoing programme to improve the Grosvenor Terrace car park, which we have now named Town Centre East car park.
"This car park has tended to be underused except at Christmas, but in fact it is extremely conveniently located for people using the town centre." The car park, which has a current capacity of 452 spaces, has been earmarked by borough business bosses as the facility which will "pick up the slack" from the green lit North Place and Portland Street development.
The North Place plans will see two large car parks ripped up and replaced by a supermarket, more than 100 homes and a multi-storey car park. But with a large portion of the spaces at the new multi-storey set aside for supermarket shoppers, the development will see Cheltenham lose around 500 spaces for public use. This is where it is hoped the under-utilised TCE will come in.
David Roberts, head of property and asset management at the Borough Council, said: "The council occupies the car park on a full repairing lease, and we undertake maintenance works to ensure compliance with the lease obligations.
"Some of this work includes waterproofing and resurfacing the top levels and concrete repairs. We are also going to provide additional disabled car parking bays as there is currently an under provision of these. The work should be completed by the end of this month."
Parking at TCE currently costs £1.20 per hour or £5.50 for all day.
OPINION, P8
