Agenda item

To consider whether to dispose of the St John’s Street, Hythe car park.

RECOMMENDED:

(a)             That the St John’s Street car park, Hythe, be declared surplus to direct operational requirements; and

(b)             That the Executive Director and/or Chief Executive, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Efficiency and the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, be authorised to finalise the terms and enter into all the necessary contracts to complete the sale of the Council’s land at St John’s Street, Hythe, to Lidl on the principles set out in Report Item 4 considered by the Cabinet.

The meeting was addressed by Parish Cllr McLean of Hythe and Dibden Parish Council who presented the findings of the consultation exercise undertaken by the Council to establish local views on the proposal.  In the light of the consultation responses, with the majority of respondents supporting the disposal of the site for the construction of a supermarket by a discount food retailer, the Parish Council supported the principle of the disposal, but asked for the project to be held in abeyance to allow a community impact assessment to prepared about the loss of parking and the measures necessary to mitigate any ill-effects.

In the light of this information the Cabinet considered whether to dispose of the St John’s Street, Hythe car park to allow the construction of a supermarket on this and part of an adjoining site, in separate ownership.  The terms of the proposed disposal, which was conditional upon the resolution of certain essential criteria, as set out in section 6 of the Report Item 4 considered by the Cabinet, were set out in detail.

It was noted that, in addition to the parish council, local District ward councillors supported the proposed disposal.

A marketing exercise had been undertaken to establish interest in the site.  That exercise, together with additional advice from independent consultants, demonstrated that the proposed terms of the disposal, as set out in the report, fulfilled the Council’s obligation under S123 of the Local Government Act 1972 to achieve the best possible price for the disposal of this asset.

The Cabinet was advised that the car park was currently under-used and that there was spare parking capacity across the village.  Although 100 of the publicly available spaces in the village would, under this proposal, be under the ownership and control of the new supermarket, surveys of current car parking use demonstrated that the number of spaces provided should still be sufficient.

A retail impact assessment of the village in June 2015 had concluded that an additional supermarket would be of benefit to the majority of retail and service businesses in Hythe because the number of linked purpose shopping trips to the village centre should increase.  An additional supermarket, as currently proposed, would strengthen rather than harm the vitality and viability of the town centre as a whole.

The Cabinet considered that, as the majority of the concerns being raised would be addressed through the planning application process which would follow, delaying the project further, with the possibility that the supermarket operator would consequently withdraw, could not be justified.  The benefits to Hythe and also to Fawley, where the building company that owned the adjoining site that was part of this proposal wished to relocate, outweighed the disbenefits that had been identified.  The Cabinet was satisfied that this option would optimise the returns that could be gained from this asset, balanced with achieving significant benefits for the local community.

RECOMMENDED:

(a)             That the St John’s Street car park, Hythe, be declared surplus to direct operational requirements; and

(b)             That the Executive Director and/or Chief Executive, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Efficiency and the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, be authorised to finalise the terms and enter into all the necessary contracts to complete the sale of the Council’s land at St John’s Street, Hythe, to Lidl on the principles set out in Report Item 4 considered by the Cabinet.