The blitz on car parks in Surrey Heath continues after the borough council agreed its latest sale.

The council had previously said that car parks that did not pay for themselves would be sold, and with the half-full Yorktown site in Sullivan Road, Camberley only bringing in £9,000 a year it was decided to sell part of the land for housing.

This would bring in much needed cash and help the council meet strict government-set housing targets.

The Yorktown car park will lose 73 spaces to help the debt-ridden borough get its finances in order and avoid going bust.

Other assets sold this year include the Woodend Road in Deepcut and land in Greenbank Way, Frimley as the council looks to trim £3.14m from its budget as well as increase service charges.

Presenting the item to the Tuesday, September 16, Surrey Heath Borough Council executive meeting, was Councillor Kel Finan-Cooke who told the meeting the financial reasons for selling were compelling and that sufficient spaces would be retained.

The property and economic development portfolio holder said: “Whilst the Yorktown Car park may be an important facility to those living and working nearby it rarely gets even half full.

“It produces a net income of £9,000 a year which is £1.26 a week for each of the 137 bays.

“For these reasons the site has been earmarked for redevelopment in the new local plan in order to meet the borough’s housing need.

“No objections were raised to allocating the site to housing.

She added that part of the site had been marketed for sale to see whether it would bring in a “much needed capital receipt which could be used to reduce the council’s substantial debt burden.

“The remainder of the car park which the council would still own and operate would still have 64 bays, more than enough to cope with the current demand.”

New housing would be required to provide sufficient car parking of its own. The council expects the money from the sale to come into the coffers by the end of the year.

The plan would be to leave 64 bays including three disabled bays, 10 of which will be electric.

Data shows this would still be sufficient given the car park’s usage. Across May, June and July this year the peak number of cars at any one time was 43. While on average just 43 cars throughout the entire day use the site.