Amoy Street Car Park North and South car parks

Of the car parks within Bedford Place, there are currently only immediate proposals to close the Amoy Street (North and South) Car Parks. Note this is not the Wilton Avenue (short stay) car park, which will be retained.

All the car parks within Bedford Place have been assessed against the disposal criteria. The determination of which car parks to retain and which to dispose of within any given location is based on a number of criteria. The usage data, the potential for displacement to other car parks, the commercial impact of selling versus retaining, the development potential of the land, and the current marketability of the site are all assessed before a decision is proposed. Within the Bedford Place area, Amoy Street (North and South) Car Parks met and scored higher against the criteria than any of the other viable sites.

There are a combination of reasons why other sites have not been considered, these include the site: 

• Generating a positive revenue return against the value of the site meaning it is better to retain it
• Not being feasible for development based on limited value or prohibitive issues with the site itself 

In addition, removal of any of the four larger car parks would create an increased risk of demand exceeding supply in the area. 

The council has been given a one-time opportunity to use any capital it generates to support investment in or to underpin other demand in services. This has driven the need to evaluate its asset portfolio against the current and future needs of the city. All car parks within Southampton have running costs, and alternative ways of approaching and increasing revenue needs to be prioritised when supply doesn’t necessarily reach demand. 

Though the car park does generate revenue it would take a significant number of years to generate the revenue that could be achieved from the sale value. Scope for development on both Amoy Street (North and South) Car Parks will also potentially generate alternative revenue to the council such as business rates or Council Tax. 

An impact assessment has been carried in Bedford Place that captures usage in terms of customers against the remaining available capacity across each of the car parks in the area, if any given car park is disposed of. Usage data for car parks comes via ticket sales at car parks (both machine and pay by phone). Where ticket sales are not available for a car park, a manual count of vehicles is carried out for one day.

The data gives the potential car park numbers at a moment in time based on the time of sale and length of time purchased and is compared to the total available car parking capacity for an area to see if there is an oversupply of car parking spaces. 

The table below, based on purchased ticket data, shows the highest usage figure recorded for each car park at 11am (deemed as peak time of day) over the last 18 months. 11am was chosen as a representative peak time based on the ticket data and validated by a manual count.

As purchased ticket data for all car parks except MSCPs does not include season tickets, based on manual count data we are assuming 25% of the capacity could be utilised by season ticket holders. When this is applied and the Amoy Street data is discounted, on average it equates to 278 available spaces.

The removal of Amoy Street (North and South) Car Parks reduces parking spaces in the area by 54, which equates to 5% of the current total number for Bedford Place. 

The proposed closure of a car park formally begins with the publication of a statutory consultation process (Car Park Revocation Order). During the period of issue, those who wish to do so will have the opportunity to outline any concerns or objections for consideration. All submissions will be reviewed, considered and responded to accordingly, prior to any final decision being taken and published.

The sale of any car parks will be subject to planning, so there will be a delay between the decision to close the car park and its actual closure in accordance with planning permission timelines. It will remain in use prior to development commencing. It is anticipated that the full process from statutory consultation through to closure will be around 9-12 months.

There will be remaining car parks in the Bedford Place area for long stay parking, including: 

As noted in the table there are 78 short stay spaces at Wilton Avenue. There are 47 on street parking spaces available within the Bedford Place area. 

The data found that on average, 15 car park visitors use Amoy Street per day on a short stay basis (less than 3 hours). As shown in the data table analysis of the Wilton Avenue short stay car park highlights that it should be able to absorb that additional demand as it has on around 28 available spaces at the peak time of day. 
 
The locations are shown below, and further details about our car parks can be found on the parking map.

Within all locations, car parks that have been identified as strategically important will be retained. All other car parks have been assessed against the disposal criteria. Further disposals will be progressed based on alignment to the criteria, whilst seeking to ensure that no one area is unduly affected. To limit any impact, the initial plan is for only one car park in each location to be considered for disposal. However, there is still the possibility that locations could be visited at a later date, but all the disposal assessment criteria would still need to be met.

The locations are shown below, and further details about our car parks can be found on the parking map. 

Season pass availability will continue to be updated in line with any decisions to close specific car parks. As noted in the Frequently Asked Question above relating to disposal timeframes, the time between the decision to sell and the formal closure of the car park will include a period of marketing and a planning application within which time a season pass is likely to elapse. However, if a season pass for a car park that is closing during the period covered has been purchased, it will be accepted at other council-controlled off-street car parks.

Further details about all of our car parks can be found on the parking map.

As noted in the data analysis, we have looked at the usage data in the area including Wilton Avenue Car Park. Based on the analysis we believe that the car park can cope with the regular short stay users (3 hours and under) utilising Amoy Street, meaning that visitors to local businesses will still have available parking capacity alongside those parking on a longer-term basis. 

An Equality and Safety Impact Assessment (ESIA) has been completed. The ESIA considered the impact on various community groups and protected characteristics, and has made recommendations for mitigations to reduce the impact. These include amongst other activities; provision of information on alternative parking options, reviewing walking routes between the closing car park and alternative options to see if improvements can be made and that they remain safe at all times of day, and continuing to monitor car park usage and the impact on traffic from displaced journeys. As part of the disposal process, if the disposal is approved the mitigations will be actioned.

Amoy Street (North and South) Car Parks were proposed for closure in part for their development potential. No planning permission has been agreed yet on what the site would change to, but it will not be retained as a car park for the public once closed.

Historically, the area was used for housing as shown in this historical map from 1933-1946:

The preferred option for the site would be housing but this cannot be predetermined as any development will require planning permission for a change of use. As with the other assets within the wider Asset Development and Disposal Programme, the marketing of the site would be undertaken by our strategic partner, Savills.