A brand new 700 space multi-storey car park is being kept in mothballs and costing the council a small fortune.
Commuter parking near Milton Keynes Station has only so far recovered to about 15 per cent of its pre-lockdown level and the new £8.5 million seven storey council car park would cost more to open, a meeting heard.
Papers presented to the delegated decisions meeting on Tuesday said the council budgeted to raise £470,000 to pay the borrowing costs of building it, but so far no income has been received.
Much of the lost income has been paid for by the Government, but the council still has to find £100,000, councillors were told.
The meeting heard that a “crude survey” of commuter parking in A Block in the city centre showed parking had reached 15 per cent, compared to 35 per cent in other areas.
“Having it closed and no-one parking there must be the worst of all situations. We could be generating some revenue from it,” said Cllr John Bint (Broughton) the Tory transport spokesman.
“It would be good to know what the plan is to rectify it.
“Covid is something we have to cope with rather than saying why we are half a million pounds missing.”
But Cllr Lauren Townsend (Lab, Bletchley West), the cabinet’s transport portfolio holder, said: “I wouldn’t advocate opening it right now because it is just going to add running costs to the borrowing costs.”
She was making a decision to formally accept a report that shows the amount of damage that has been done by the covid lockdown to the council’s parking income.
Construction work ended at the site in June, in the middle of the lockdown, and Cllr Townsend said it was completed for £8.5 million, a saving on the original budget estimate of £10.1 million.
“At one point income dropped to zero, at one point it was almost below zero because we were refunding more unused permits from residents than we were raising from parking,” she said.
Council leader Cllr Pete Marland (Lab, Wolverton) said that much of the borrowing cost was going to be covered by the Government’s income loss scheme, set to provide £310,000-£320,000 of support.
“There was a risk contingency in the budget but no circumstances could project that the income was going to be zero,” he said.
He added that the hit to council finances on the scheme would work out as £100,000 which he said is “difficult but manageable.”
The meeting also heard that the council’s total off street parking income is currently tracking at £3.9 million behind expected, and could end up anywhere between a shortfall of £10.8 million and £7.8 million.
