Parish council considers buying former police station
Community leaders are considering joining forces with a local business to buy their town’s former police station in a bid to tackle a long-running parking problem.
Eccleshall Police Station is one of eight disused sites across Staffordshire to be put up for sale by the force in recent months.
And on Wednesday an extraordinary meeting of Eccleshall Parish Council considered proposals to put in a bid for the Stone Road base, which includes a car park.
Last year Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis offered the use of 13 car parking spaces at the site for local businesses struggling to find vehicle space elsewhere in the town centre.
Eccleshall Parish Council now hopes to keep the police station car park open for the benefit of town businesses and visitors after the station is sold.
Four options were put forward at Wednesday’s meeting.
They were for the council not to be involved in acquiring the site, being involved as part of a community interest company (CIC), buying the site or joining a local business in purchasing the site as a joint venture.
The idea that the CIC could buy the police station site was put forward in the summer as part of a consultation to find out how Eccleshall residents would like to see their town develop in the coming years.
The consultation closed on Sunday and suggested the police station could become a business hub, while existing car parking provision on the site would be maintained.
But on Wednesday parish councillors did not opt to work with the CIC – instead voting in favour of buying the site as a joint venture with a local solicitor by 11 votes to one.
Councillor Peter Jones, who chaired the meeting, said: “It was agreed by Jeremy Pert we might consider getting involved, purchasing it on our own or with others and we have had several meetings.
“The parish council is moving forward with the option of putting a bid in. Nothing may come of it, but if our bid goes ahead we would use the parking spaces and the business would have the office.
“We could do with more parking. I have been here 25 years and parking has always been a bit of a problem.”
The process involves a sealed bid, Councillor Jones added, and the council would consider using reserves and possibly borrowing money if its joint bid is successful.
But resident Ant Reid, who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said: “I feel a lot of sympathy for the councillors, but I don’t think the right solution has been found yet, and they’ve run out of time.
"The pressure of trying to stop our town’s parking situation getting even worse is just too much for our parish council, who voted to go into debt to compete in the sale.
“I think they went for the only option they could understand, but I don’t agree with raising precepts and debt just to buy a car park that doesn’t have a proper revenue plan behind it.
"This land was council land not so long ago – within living memory – and was only sold to the police to benefit the community. It should go back to the community at a sub-market rate.”
