Owners of ‘temporary’ 24-hour car park in Wolverhampton ask to stay open another year
The owners of a ‘temporary’ city centre 24-hour car park which a council said would get in the way of its huge regeneration plans have asked permission to stay open for another year.
City of Wolverhampton Council blocked a move by Parkit Managment Ltd in 2024 to allow the 48-space car park, on the corner of School Street and Fold Street in Wolverhampton city centre, to remain after it was opened without permission earlier that year.
The council rejected the plans saying the 24-hour car park would ‘stand in the way’ of its huge regeneration plans for the area which includes up to 1,070 new homes, shops, bars, restaurants and a revamped public square across a 12-acre site linking School Street and Darlington Street.
The firm has now asked for permission from the council for the car park to stay open for another year.
The car park sits next to the council’s own 270-space Fold Street car park.
Work began on the huge Smithgate development, the city’s largest regeneration scheme, last year and the first phase includes 331 new flats as well as new retail units on the site of the city’s former indoor market in Peel Street as well as the area around the city centre’s Market Square.
The site of the former ageing Network House and shopping parade in School Street, which were demolished more than six years ago, was converted into a private 24-hour car park at the start of 2024 by Parkit Management, which manages the car park, without planning permission from the council.
A retrospective application – asking to ratify the work that had already been carried out unlawfully – was then rejected by planning officers at City of Wolverhampton Council who said the tarmacked car park was a ‘far cry’ from the 113 flats originally promised and went against the council’s plans to regenerate the area.
The developer said the new flats would still be built in the future but the car park would generate money for the development until “extremely high” construction costs dropped and the economy recovered.
The application went on to say that if the council rejected the car park plans, the site would “quickly revert to being a wasteland and eyesore” with “rubbish, needles, rubble and no lights.”
The government inspector sided with Parkit Management saying the council had not provided “any substantive evidence” to show the car park was blocking re-development.
