Temporary surface car park will replace ailing multi-storey in Leamington town centre

Leamington’s Covent Garden multi-storey car park will be closed for good this weekend ahead of its eventual demolition with a community wellbeing hub eventually taking its place.

But before anything else is built on the town centre site, it is planned to flatten the area and create an additional 120 car park spaces alongside the existing short-stay surface car park which will remain open.

Councillors voted to forge on with the plans after hearing that anti-social behaviour was rife in the car park, particularly in the school holidays, and Sunday’s closure will mean there will be no access during February half-term.

Cllr Moira-Ann Grainger (Con, Warwick All Saints and Woodloes), the portfolio holder for neighbourhood and leisure, told this week’s cabinet meeting of Warwick District Council: “This has been closed level by level and people have been able to adjust to the situation.

“It isn't actually the concrete cancer but the anti-social behaviour and the health and safety issues that have brought it to a head.

“There is no longer a lifeline left for this building. It needs to be closed, it needs to be shut down and it needs to come down.

"One of the big things is that most of this will be rubbled into the site.

"We are not going to be trundling loads and loads of vehicles in and out of the town.

“I know that organisations like the BID are very upset but as you can see from the displacement plan, we haven't a car park that is 50 per cent full at any time at the moment and these figures included December, which I suppose is a very sad reflection on where we are as a retail centre.

“There will have to be some adjustments - it’s coming down, it’s closing at the weekend.”

Cllr Grainger said a plan to Tarmac the area as a short-term car park would cost £1.2m, adding: “This is an interim thing and you could say that’s a really expensive interim thing to do but it could be another four years before the next phase comes forward.”

The top two floors of the 1960s car park were closed in March 2019 with levels five and six closed off in December.

A report before councillors explained that a community wellbeing hub would bring together amenities such as a GP surgery and other connected health services, as well as a citizens’ advice centre and post office.