A FREE car park in Bexhill could be redeveloped into a storage facility by Rother District Council if plans are approved.
The plans for the car park in Beeching Close would see 60 free parking bays removed and replaced with storage units, which health workers at the nearby NHS Diagnostic Centre say would leave them with a large reduction of spaces.
The current owners of the car park, Rother District Council, say after a consultation, an average of 40 vehicles use the car park Monday to Friday and on average 10 vehicles use the car park Saturday to Sunday.
Due to rising costs of maintaining car parks and a need to increase revenue, if this car park were not used for storage, the Council would be considering introducing charges at a similar rate to nearby Wainwright Road car park (£2.30 per day).
The parking team of Rother District Council confirmed: “The Wainwright Road Car Park has 80 spaces and on average 37 vehicles use the car park Monday to Friday. Therefore, given the usage details of both car parks, the loss of car park spaces can be accommodated by surplus capacity at the Wainwright Road car park on average.”
However, letters of appeal sent to Rother District Council express frustration from workers at the NHS Diagnostics Centre in Beeching Road.
One letter stated: “Since the Bexhill CDC opening 18 months ago it has seen tens of thousands of local patients for CT & MRI scanning, X-Ray, Ultrasound, Echo Cardiology, blood tests and lung function tests. This has been of immeasurable benefit to the local community.
Many staff need to be able to work in the Diagnostic Centre and they use this car park every day, 7 days a week. The CDC car park is needed for patients to use and for locating the scanners, so staff use this car park instead if they can’t take public transport.”
If the plans are approved, the site will be used for the storage of ‘Food Waste Caddies’, which is a nationally phased project by the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs to implement weekly food waste collections.
The authority says the total requirement for the caddies can be housed in 32, 20-foot containers and will be utilised for the 18 month period of the DEFRA campaign.
Rother District Council currently utilise a number of private storage facilities. These come from a selection of facilities including ones within Bexhill, Hastings, and even further out of the district in Eastbourne.
These facilities help the Council fulfil some of their statutory requirements, but the Council would like to bring the storage in-house to significantly reduce costs. Securing storage facilities for the District will also improve the sustainability of the Council by reducing or removing the need for out-of-district storage uses and sites.
If approved, the facility will be built in stages with containers for the food waste delivered in the Autumn with 19 additional containers delivered in the Winter.
Twelve double-stacked containers against the boundary will be added at a later date if the Council increases its requirements and will likely be used for longer-term storage and require less access.
Residents can view the plans on the Rother District Council website using Planning Application number: RR/2024/1423/P, and comments can be made until 25th September 2024.
What do you think? Send your letter to the editor by emailing: letters@bexhill.news
