Town Hall bosses spend £78k on staff parking during building work

Town hall bosses are to spend £78,000 ensuring their staff and councillors have enough designated car park spaces for their vehicles during major redevelopment works.

Blackburn with Darwen Council will spend the cash on renting an extra 250 slots at Blackburn’s the Mall shopping centre.

The move is revealed in a report by borough environment boss Cllr Jim Smith.

It says: “Brown Street car park is already over subscribed for permit parking and has capacity pressures.

“From May 2025 or soon after, 137 car parking spaces will be unavailable for use on Brown Street due to work commencing on the development of the new town centre skills campus.

“There will be 183 remaining car parking spaces on Brown Street along with 60 spaces on Penny Street.

“Currently 518 car parking passes have been issued, therefore the council needs to identify additional town centre
parking provision.

“This report sets out a proposal to take additional car parking spaces on the Mall, Blackburn to provide sufficient car parking spaces for council staff and elected members following the reduction in parking spaces on Brown Street car park.

“Staff and elected members are provided with car parking facilities through a range of car parks within the town centre.

“These consist of Feilden Street Multi-Storey Car Park (MSCP), Duke Street car park, Brown Street car park, Penny Street car park and The Mall.

“Staff pay £20 per month for their parking permits.

“The council currently issues 518 passes for Brown Street car park and Penny Street car park which have a total of 380 spaces.

“The current breakdown of the 518 parking permits issued on Brown Street/Penny Street is as follows: 42 elected members; 312 council staff; 37 markets/bus station staff; 72 police; and 55 other.

“There is available parking space on other council owned car parks such as Feilden Street MSCP, butit is not sufficient to meet the current demand for car parking spaces.

“The council also has a flexible agreement to rent parking spaces on The Mall car park and currently we rent 50 parking spaces.

“Further demand for additional staff permits is as a result of the town hall redevelopment and associated accommodation strategy which has seen an increasing number of staff relocating into Duke Street office block and the town hall.

The car park working group has has negotiated a rental deal for 250 car parking spaces on the Mall in addition to the 50 already rented.

“The net additional cost is estimated to be £78,000 and can be funded from within existing budgets.”