Anger over car park 'offload' plan

Some councillors are angry with a decision to "offload" 19 council-owned car parks, many of which are currently free or free for part of the year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Cornwall Council has agreed the car parks, with a total of 2,123 spaces, can be leased to its arms-length company Corserv Solutions Ltd and are likely to be run by a private car park enforcement company using ANPR equipment.

The move is part of a cabinet-endorsed decision to hand over 2,000 environmental and heritage assets, including beaches, country parks and car parks in a bid to save millions of pounds in running and maintenance costs.

A number of councillors disagree, arguing a number of car parks are in town centres and not near "environmental assets" and asked for the decision to be called in and reconsidered.

Councillor Thalia Marrington said St Peter's Hill Newlyn, in her division, which has 25 spaces "is an urban not rural area where residents mix with the industry and commercial centre, so I cannot see how this is anything other than inadequate consulting".

She said: "I really think that there has been inadequate consultation if these car parks are still on the list given that any cursory visit to Newlyn would [make anyone] aware that there is a huge parking problem for residents."

Affected car parks include Watergate Bay, near Newquay, with 400 spaces, Trebarwith Strand, near Tintagel with 272 spaces and Castle Street and Pannier Market in Launceston, with a combined total of 56 spaces.

The council's monitoring officer Paul Grant has rejected the call-in request and said the car parks adhere to the "environmental assets" criteria and that consultation was satisfactory.

Councillor Tim Dwelly, who chairs the council's economic scrutiny committee, is not happy with the officer's decision.

He has written to Mr Grant stating that several of the car parks on the list "are very obviously nothing to do with accessing environmental land".

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