Planners to decide on £1.8m Kidsgrove plan
Plans to demolish a derelict garage and extend a public car park in a Staffordshire town centre will be decided by planners today.
The scheme put forward by Newcastle-under-Lyme council would see around £1.8m of improvements to public spaces in Kidsgrove, centred around the 1.5 acre car park site in King Street, which the authority says currently “contributes little” to the character and appearance of the area.
If approved, a total of 57 car park spaces would be created with an extension of the King Street car park, alongside a redesign of an existing car park opposite. A taxi rank will be removed as part of the scheme, with new street lighting, planters and replacement bus shelters set to give the area a further glow-up, the council says.
The proposals come on the back of a grant from the government’s town deal fund for public space improvements in Kidsgrove, which saw £16.9m of funding awarded to five linked improvement projects in the area in 2021.
“The proposed works to reconfigure the existing car parking areas, and provide a new two-way access into and out of the car park on the eastern side of the site, closing up the existing in / out arrangement, will make the area more pedestrian friendly as all traffic using the car park will be using a singular point of access,” said a supporting statement prepared by the scheme’s architects, Hewitt & Carr.
“The proposed formation of the extended car park will result in the loss of an existing area of greenery and trees adjacent to the existing car park, but the development proposes to mitigate for the loss of those trees.
“The provision of new landscaping throughout the public realm will serve to soften the appearance of the site compared to its current condition.”
A temporary car park would be created by the demolition of a council owned former service garage, to provide space for shoppers while improvements are under way.
Last month, the council said that the garage site would be sold off for housing once the improvements have been completed – part of a policy to reduce the amount of “under-used” car parks under the control of the council. Two small sites in King Street will also be sold off for housing development as part of the deal.
The application has been recommended for approval, and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council’s planning committee will decide on the proposals later today.
Plans and documents relating to the application can be viewed on the council’s planning portal under reference 25/00570/DEEM3
