YORK'S deputy leader has said there is no financial justification for building a new multi-storey car park on St George’s Field and has called for the project to be scrapped.

Cllr Andy D’Agorne, speaking as leader of the Green group, said the 372-space car park “is not acceptable in any cost-benefit terms” as it would cost more than £116,000 per space.

The five-storey car park plan was approved in January 2021, but councillors later decided to review the decision to examine the impact of the pandemic on demand for car parking.

A final decision has been pushed back until the summer, but Cllr D’Agorne said the Greens felt  the question of the new car park “should be settled as soon as possible”.

He said his party understood that some city centre businesses have concerns about the impact reducing car parking could have.

York Press:

 

“But our future vision for this cannot depend on large numbers of people arriving in private cars,” he added. “We believe that what is important for businesses is that people come into the city centre, not exactly how they get there.

“Many people, like us, believe that in the face of the climate emergency and the need to reduce car travel in the city to meet our carbon reduction targets, using council investment to build a new car park isn’t the best way forwards.”

The plan “offered some advantages”, Cllr D’Agorne said, as it made better use the land, which is a flood plain and can’t be used for other purposes.

But he said his party believed the business case for the £14 million building, which would be built over the existing surface level car park, did not stack up as the number of new spaces created in total could be less than 120.

York Press: A computer generated image of the proposed multi-storey car park at St George’s Field

He added: “Without a sound business case the car park cannot be built and it makes far more sense to spend the funds expected from the wider Castle Gateway project in other ways.”

A petition against the “unnecessary eyesore” new car park has now reached more than 1,000 signatures.

Campaigners have said there is still space in York’s existing car parks and have called for a decision to be delayed until the council publishes its long awaited Local Transport Plan.

Car parking will be lost at nearby Castle Car Park as it is to be transformed into a new public space.

The council has previously said it needs to implement a “replacement parking strategy” before Castle Car Park can close.

Campaigners and the Labour group have previously suggested that the council wanted to sell off other council car parks after building on St George’s Field, claims the council’s executive member for finance and performance, Nigel Ayre, has dismissed.