Worthing: Plans approved to sell multi-storey car park branded as eyesore

Grafton car park has "done its job", the council says

Plans to demolish "an eyesore" car park on the West Sussex coast have moved a stop closer.

Grafton multi-storey car park in Worthing can now be sold to be turned into 150 homes, leisure facilities and commercial units, a council says.

Members of Worthing Borough Council approved the plans to sell the site and neighbouring shops to a developer at a meeting on Thursday.

Plans to bulldoze the 1960s car park were first mooted in 2007.

Some residents of Worthing told BBC Radio Sussex the building was "ugly", an "eyesore", and a "monstrosity".

Caroline Baxter, Worthing's cabinet member for regeneration, said: "Grafton has done its job as a car park but it is in the centre of an ugly, untidy part of the town that urgently needs to be transformed."

She told BBC Radio Sussex that car park was under-used with only a quarter of the 440 spaces being used at any one time, on average.

She said redeveloping this site "would benefit the community and at the same time support the regeneration of our historic seafront".

The site will be marketed for sale from January, the council says.

"We want to see the very best ideas, innovative designs and high quality architecture," Ms Baxter added.

The sale of Grafton car park will support regeneration of the sea front, Worthing council says

A council spokesman said; "The move will remove ageing, unattractive buildings from the area, allow the construction of much-needed homes and support the regeneration of the seafront."

The council said new leisure facilities would be created either on the site of the car park, or elsewhere in the town.

The spokesman for the council said the authority believed after selling the site there would be sufficient parking spaces in remaining council car parks to cope with demand.

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