The £11m HS2 car park that's ‘bankrupting' a Labour council

Telegraph

6 hours ago

An £11m council car park built to cash in on HS2 is losing £500 a day and cannot afford to open on Sundays, a local authority has admitted.
Cheshire East council unveiled the 390-space multi-storey facility in Crewe last July, but losses have already run into six-figures after it was used by just 80 cars a day.
It was built as part of a two-phase investment ahead of plans for HS2 trains to stop in the town, but has struggled financially after the rail project's northern leg was cancelled by the Government.
Within 10 months of opening, the car park has now cost £166,000 to run and taken just £33,500 in revenue.
Councillors have clashed over the decisions made and warned it could drive the council to bankruptcy. Critics also described the 'barely used' car park as a 'money sink.'
Situated on Crewe town centre's Delamere Street, the car park cost £11.3m to build and was entirely council-funded. It was approved by the council in 2017 under the Conservatives before Labour took control two years later.
Construction began in 2023 in preparation for part two of a major town centre redevelopment, which was supposed to include shops, restaurants and a cinema on a neighbouring site at the Royal Arcade.
However, the second phase was shelved after the Government scrapped the northern leg of the HS2 rail project later that year. The council then wrote to Government ministers demanding compensation.
'Money sink'
On average, the car park has now cost the town around £13,275 a month, £3,017 a week or £503 a day.
Craig Browne, the former deputy leader of the council's Highways and Transport committee, said: 'I think at the time we'd estimated that the gross value added of HS2 coming to Crewe was about £750m. It underpinned a lot of the investment the council was planning to make.
'We'd always predicated our business planning on between five and seven fast trains an hour stopping at Crewe. Of course, that's not happening now.'
He added there were hopes that the potential £3.5bn Liverpool-Manchester rail link, part of the Northern Powerhouse rail project confirmed by Rachel Reeves in her Spring Statement, could help recover some of the cost if it stopped at Crewe.
However, non-grouped Independent Councillor Reg Kain said the council was 'in chaos' and could end up effectively filing for bankruptcy.
He said: 'At the most recent full council meeting, the Labour and Independent administration denied any wrongdoing. However, it would appear they have no clear understanding of which car parks are making a loss and which are not.
'Their approach is inconsistent with previous regeneration policies aimed at revitalising town centres. Based on the current trajectory, I believe their actions could very well lead to the issuing of a Section 114 notice before the next by-election.'
Callum McGoldrick, researcher of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said: 'Residents will be confused as to why this car park is haemorrhaging money.
'A barely used concrete space with no short-term investment prospects, which can't even afford to open on Sundays, is just going to waste more and more cash as time goes on.
'The council needs to come up with a proper plan for the future of this car park and implement it so that it doesn't simply become a money sink.'
Local authorities under scrutiny
Telegraph investigation revealed that 24 local authorities now spend more than half of their council tax on pension contributions, with five of them forking out more than half. Cheshire East council spent £35m, or around 12pc of the £299m it collected.
Nine in 10 areas across England are facing the maximum 4.99pc rise in council tax this year, with six more areas hit with even larger increases. The average second home owner will also see their bill rise to £3,672 after new rules enabled a 100pc council tax premium.
A Cheshire East council spokesman said investors would not commit to schemes where no infrastructure was in place.
He said: 'The multi-storey car park was built because it is replacing car parking spaces that have, or will be, removed. Like many larger towns and cities, we have to take a longer-term view and build infrastructure that is the foundation for the regeneration schemes that will come forward over the next 25 years.
'Examples of projects that will benefit from having the Crewe multi-storey car park in place both now and in the very near future are the Youth Zone, Lyceum Square events space and Cheshire Archives Crewe.
'These schemes will increase footfall and allow us to deliver the types of facilities that local residents have told us they want to see.'
He added that there were no plans to open the car park on Sundays because parking was available nearby and it would not be sensible to increase operating costs.