News / car parks
Two very different future uses for two Bristol car parks
While part of one car park in the city centre could be turned into a “last-mile micro-consolidation hub”, a car park next to a popular tourist attraction could one day see flats replace vehicles.
The hub could be built within a small area of the College Street car park behind City Hall while the new flats could be built at the car park next to the SS Great Britain.
It comes as changes are also afoot at other car parks in the city centre, including the possibility of a 20-storey tower on the site of the Nelson Street NCP and a 21-storey tower on what is currently the NCP car park on Rupert Street, with a new car park included in the latter scheme.
is needed now More than ever
A transport statement for the last-mile micro-consolidation hub reveals that 868sq ft on the ground level of the College Street car park would become a logistics operation as well as be used overnight for storage of e-cargo bikes.
“A delivery van would drop the parcels off at the hub which would then be sorted into routings and distributed within 24 hours to their final destination via e-cargo bikes or by foot.”
The hub at the car park is expected to “significantly” reduce the number of delivery vans operating within the city centre.
Transport and infrastructure consultants WSP, on behalf of car park owners Bristol City Council, say the proposed hub “will provide a sustainable solution for freight deliveries, reducing reliance on traditional vans and supporting the city’s decarbonisation goals”.
The proposed ‘last-mile micro-consolidation hub’ would replace seven spaces within the indoor section of the car park, and five spaces as an area outside for loading and unloading – image: WSP
Bristol City Council-owned housing developer Goram Homes is exploring plans to build more than 150 flats on the car park next to the SS Great Britain, officially called the Maritime Heritage Centre Car Park.
Stephen Baker, managing director of Goram Homes, told a recent council meeting: “We’ve looked at a capacity study for the site, so we’ve worked out what is the art of the possible…
“At the moment there’s no immediate plans for us to take forward the redevelopment of the car park.
“We’ll maintain dialogue with the SS Great Britain Trust and work together, and see how their plans emerge for their future use of the car park.
“But for now, it’s not on our immediate pipeline of work that we’re doing in the next 12 months.”
Maritime Heritage Centre Car Park is better known as the SS Great Britain car park – photo: Martin Booth
Hotwells & Harbourside councillor Patrick McAllister said the SS Great Britain Trust “just want to make sure that access for visitors to their site is protected and they would be very happy for that to be done by a public transport hub and so on”.
McCallister added: “In terms of revenue that the council gets from the site, we’ll probably get more in council tax from a housing development than we do from the car park. But this is all very much further down in the pipeline.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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