HEREFORDSHIRE Council's cabinet will consider whether to sell-off all or part of Leominster's Broad Street car park.

It comes after the authority was approached by an unnamed developer who has expressed an interest in purchasing part of the car park for retail use, subject to planning.

A report produced ahead of Thursday's meeting states: "There are currently two long stay and two short stay car parks in the town which in total provide 575 car park spaces.

"This does not include public car parks provided through third parties such as other stores or Halo.

"The total spare capacity at peak use is estimated between 262 and 200 spaces per hour.

"On this basis there appears significant opportunity for rationalisation of the total supply and investigating the opportunity for the disposal of surplus spaces to produce a capital receipt."

It does acknowledge, however, that the sale of all or part of the car park would not only impact on the provision of parking within Leominster but also revenue generation.

The developer is interested in approximately 1.6 acres (40 per cent) of the car park to provide a single retail unit which would have its own customer car park, leaving the remainder of the site as a public car park of around 100 to 110 spaces.

The council says the introduction of long stay parking and associated charges at Etnam Street car park would be sufficient to offset the estimated reduction in long stay spaces at Broad Street.

An alternative option would be to seek development of the whole site, with a mixed use retail and residential scheme.

The council is likely to appoint external agents for initial negotiations.

Ward councillor, Jenny Bartlett, said the proposals offered a unique opportunity for the town.

She said: “Certainly it has always been mooted as part of the town that is open for development. It's right on the border between retail and residential.

“If they decide to go ahead with this there's an opportunity for the town to be able to get something back from that which, under current financial constraints, it is very difficult to get anything.

“At the moment I think there's an opportunity to look at it from what it can add to the town and opportunities to look at the car parks and how that fits in with the town council's wider vision.”

However Councillor Peter McCaull believes the sell-off could be a blow for Leominster.

“We can't afford to get rid of car park spacing. There might be 200 or so empty spaces at the moment but they have only recently put in residents parking and only on one street. So those empty spaces will soon be filled,” he said.

Cabinet will be asked the back the proposal 'in principle'. After that, a market valuation would need to be carried out and an agent appointed.

An evaluation of the impact on car parking based upon both current and future demand would also be carried out as well as a local consultation.