‘Outrageous’ plans to get rid of car park could ‘shut the doors’ of historic building

Residents are outraged that a town’s bus station and ‘vital’ car park could be changed into flats and new businesses

Residents have described their outrage amid plans to get rid of a bus station and town centre car park that they claim could “shut the doors” of a historic building. Capital and Centric has proposed to turn Huntingdon bus station and Princes Street car park into 78 new homes, a “centralised hub” for businesses, and new green spaces.

The developers have submitted similar plans for St Neots and St Ives. The plans have upset many Huntingdon residents, including stakeholders in important town centre facilities.

The group shared fears that the loss of Princes Street car park could massively affect Commemoration Hall, which has a café and is used by many groups. Elena Carpenter, finance director and trustee of Commemoration Hall, said the car park is “very important” for people who use the hall.

She added: “For the Commemoration Hall, the Princes Street car park is our main car park for all of our customers, especially for our evening events. We have a cafe here from Monday to Sunday all throughout the day, and a lot of our customers with mobility issues will use Princes Street. So taking away that car park is essentially shutting the doors on the charity that has been operating here since 1842.”

The hall is frequently used by Huntingdon Youth Theatre, which has been based at the hall for nearly 30 years. Dominic Whitehead, vice-chair of Commemoration Hall and leader of Huntingdon Youth Theatre, described the plans as “outrageous”.

“Somebody needs to do some homework on what Huntingdon needs, rather than what somebody wants to impose upon Huntingdon,” said Dominic. He said the Princes Street car park is well used by parents of the children who attend the theatre group.

He added: “The parents have to get them [the children] often as close as they possibly can to the building, particularly since we work evenings. We also work throughout the year, so we’re talking about winter evenings where we have parents of young people accessing a building on the high street, where the access is from this car park.

“For that to be closed off, our members would be forced to travel across a ring road with other young children in tow, because we have a lot of families that tend to come where we have the elder sibling and the younger sibling joins us later. That becomes a logistical nightmare.”

Performances are also held at the hall, and with no car park, attendance to these could be affected. Dominic added: “We’re talking about parents, grandparents and younger siblings who are also denied access to the building. That’s going to have an impact on our venue.

“We are a registered charity. We have no other income source other than from ticket sales and support for our shows. All of that and 30 years of hard work as volunteers running this charity is at jeopardy as a result of one single bizarre decision.”

Angela Makey, owner of Niche Comic Book Shop, and Paul Sweeney, CEO of BID Huntingdon First, both fear removing a vital car park from the town centre could also have an effect on Huntingdon’s high street.

Angela, who has been running her comic book shop in the town for 15 years, said: “During the daytime, we get families coming in and young adults, but the other part is the bookshop is used for a lot of events.

“A lot of those people travel from outside of Huntingdon and use the car park. [This is] vital for us. The other point is the car park has up to four different exit points into the town centre, so for those families who have disabled people, it’s very important to have access to other parts of town.”

BID Huntingdon First focuses on improving Huntingdon’s high street. While Paul is “all for positive redevelopment” of the high street, he “draws the line” at these proposals.

He said: “We’re all supportive of redevelopment of the bus station, it’s very old and dated. Where we do draw the line is Princes Street, which seems to be more about residential development rather than regeneration of a high street.

“We can see nothing through the redevelopment of flats in that area, which is a very popular car park. In fact, it’s the second busiest car park in Huntingdon town centre.”

Paul believes parking in Huntingdon is “already an issue”, and removing a car park is not the solution. He added: “The car park itself is in massive use.

“Taking away the second largest car park in Huntingdon town centre and its access to our high street is a massive problem. It’s also an issue for us and many of the retailers who have already spoken to the Business Improvement District about how that will negatively impact their businesses’ sustainability and viability.”

Martin Crews, development director at Capital&Centric, said the company is starting to review comments from people who have responded so far to the plans. He said the company acknowledges the concerns over Commemoration Hall.

He said: “We have spoken to a representative from the Commemoration Hall, and we acknowledge and understand concerns raised about parking, so we are looking at how we can minimise disruption. We will continue to liaise with key stakeholders as part of the process and listen to their comments, especially around parking.”

Martin also said the company doesn’t plan to take away services that residents “rely on”. He added: “We won’t take something away that residents, businesses and visitors rely on, instead, we want to add to the towns, and we fully understand that parking is an important part of getting that right.

“So, we’re looking at the bigger picture, including how we can minimise parking disruption and potentially replace the lost provision in other local locations.

“We know there’ll be more questions from residents and businesses, and that’s exactly why we’re having these conversations now and holding events, so that people can come and meet us, tell us what they think and talk through their aspirations and concerns with the team. The feedback we receive will help us refine the plans as they develop.”

The plans will eventually be submitted to Huntingdonshire District Council. A HDC spokesperson said: “As this is a Capital & Centric engagement exercise, all feedback must be submitted through the designated channels. Capital & Centric will collate all comments and share them with HDC for consideration.”