Plans to turn car park into storage facility

The council says the 60-space car park is currently used by around 40 cars during the week and around 20 on weekends

A free-to-use car park could be closed and turned into a council storage facility for food caddies.

Rother District Council is seeking planning permission to install storage containers at the Beeching Close Car Park in Bexhill.

The council said the 60-space car park is currently used by around 40 cars during the week and around 20 on weekends, which, it said, can be acommodated by other nearby car parks.

The council’s agents said it would consider bringing in charges should it not be used as a storage facility “due to rising costs of maintaining car parks and a need to increase revenue.”

According to planning documents, the containers would be installed over several phases.

The first phase would see 32 containers installed on the site sometime this autumn, which would be used to store food caddies ahead of national changes to waste collections.

A further set of containers would be installed on the site later in the year, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council said these containers would allow it to stop its current use of private storage facilities, reducing costs and improving sustainability.

The exact number of these additional containers is not yet known, although the application said the council is considering adding either 19 20-foot containers or 38 10-foot containers.

Even more containers could be added to the site at a later date, should the council’s storage needs increase, the application adds.

If approved, the site would be secured through palisade fencing.

Drawings also appear to show a security kiosk on the site.