At a meeting of Dartmouth town council’s corporate property committee [last week], the council announced its need for up to six spaces. Three will be for its new vehicles, required following the devolved service transfer and another two or three, so that spaces are available for wedding parties that might use the Guildhall.
Councillor Robin Springett chairman of the corporate committee said: “I have been talking it over with the town clerk and, when we are letting the Guildhall for weddings and such like, and when we have our own vehicles, I’m suggesting we’ll need car parking and that we earmark five or six spaces for the town. They can be used normally but when we need them then we can give notice and use them.
“On market days they cannot be used and when we’re not using them they will be available to the public, as they are now.”
The council has nearly finished a refurbishment of the Guildhall and is seeking to create new revenues by letting the ballroom. Also, the transfer of services, which although not completed, is anticipated sufficiently that the council has agreed to spend £8,000 on a secondhand van and estimates that two more vehicles will require parking spaces.
The idea of parking council vehicles in the car park by Jawbones Park has been dismissed because of concerns about how secure the vehicles would be in that unfenced and ungated area.
Cllr Richard Cooke said: “It’s our car park. We’ll only have three vehicles but it will not be popular with the town populace.”
A suggestion that the council consider renting private car parks was agreed worthy of investigation. This and the possibility that the police will release their new spaces when they move into the new building beside the Flavel, mean the loss of parking is not a certainty but for the time being, four ‘free’ spaces have gone and up to six restricted spaces are under threat.