Decision details

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which advised that the council had been approached by an organisation of an office building in the West End of Union Street to acquire the Chapel Street Car Park to meet potential occupiers’ parking requirements.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      approve in principle the allocation of 400 spaces in the Chapel Street Car Park, this being conditional upon a long term lease being agreed with the proposed occupier;

(b)      instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to continue discussions on the best financial model for the council to deliver this and report back to a future meeting of this Committee; and

(c)      instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord, on the basis that any lease is agreed to include conditions to support green travel and negotiate a percentage of parking spaces to support EV’s/Hybrids with this percentage increasing over the length of the lease.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to agree not to sell the heritable interest in Chapel Street car park to the organisation outlined in the report;

(ii)       to approve in principle the allocation of 400 spaces in the Chapel Street Car Park at the rental identified in the report (being index linked and excluding VAT) subject to a minimum 15-year lease with the proposed occupier of the building outlined in the report and report back to a future meeting of this Committee not later than November 2021 on progress;

(iii)      to agree that the costs associated with any adjustments or upgrades to the Car Park to accommodate the proposed occupier is met by the organisation outlined in the motion, or the proposed occupier of the organisation outlined in the report;

(iv)      that in the event that a long-term lease is entered into as per (ii) above with the proposed building occupier, instruct the Chief Officer – Operations and Protective Services to implement any required traffic orders; and

(v)      to agree that if a Lease can be agreed with the proposed occupier of the building outlined in the report , officers undertake a consultation exercise to ensure that residents and businesses in the area are not impacted by this decision and if they are what parking measures can be put in place around the area to mitigate this proposed Lease.