Damaged car park losing council £269k a year

A council is losing a quarter of a million pounds a year on a car park in Weston-super-Mare because the upper floors have been closed since late 2023 due to a multitude of issues.

North Somerset Council is paying £500,000 a year to rent Carlton Street Car Park, which is meant to have 350 spaces, in a lease that runs until 2058.

But the council made a loss of £269,000 last financial year because all but the ground floor has been closed due to structural issues, three broken lifts and toxic substances that can damage cars.

Council officer Stephen Matthews told councillors: "We are tied into the lease for another 33 years - we have no choice but to keep paying the lease."

North Somerset Council, which owns the freehold of the land the car park is built on, entered into a 45 year leaseback arrangement in 2012, with an initial annual rent of £433,000.

As of last year, the rent the council is now paying is "in excess of £500,000 a year", reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service, despite the upper floors closing in November 2023.

The car park has "structural cracking and movement" and all three of the lifts are not working, with one deemed beyond repair due to rainwater damage.

Water has also been leaking in and mixing with building materials and car emissions to create a solution similar to acid rain which can damage cars.

Councillors have said they were "horrified" to discover the situation, set out in a report to the council's corporate, assets, transport and environmental services scrutiny committee on 3 July.

Chair of the committee, Steve Bridger, said: "I have been a councillor for six years and it has been one of the grimiest, most depressing, damaging reports I have read."

A condition of the lease requires the council to keep the building in good order to keep 350 spaces available but it is not being enforced by the landlord.

Mr Matthews warned councillors: "If push came to shove, they could make us do each bit of repair required under the lease."

The council is preparing options on what to do next, with a feasibility study on the costs of the potential options expected by October.

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