Plans approved for permanent car park at Hampton church
Plans have been approved for a new permanent car park at a church in Peterborough.
Stuart Harwood-Clark, the church warden, submitted a planning application to Peterborough City Council for a temporary car park to be made permanent to the rear of Christ the Servant King Church in Hampton.
The church, located opposite Serpentine Green, opened in 2014 with an original car park but plans stated that it was no longer able to meet demand.
A temporary car park was built by a construction company while it was working on an adjacent building, but the church sought to make it permanent after the number of parking complaints reduced.
Planning documents stated: “The regular Sunday congregation has increased to an average of 250 adults per week and there are numerous community groups using the building every day.
“The on-street parking provision is insufficient to cope and the car park aids greatly in relations with neighbouring residents with parking needs.”
A total of 31 permanent spaces will now be provided by the new car park.
Plans were approved by council planners to make the car park permanent despite an objection from the highways department.
The local highway authority objected to the proposal on the grounds of insufficient information regarding parking demand, parking accumulation and site operation.
Concerns were also raised regarding the internal parking layout, sub-standard access width to the overflow parking area, disabled parking provision, electric vehicle charging provision and the potential for vehicle conflict and queuing within the site.
Responding to these concerns, the council case officer said: “The local highway authority’s objection has been noted by officers.
“However, having carefully considered the submitted information, the operational characteristics of the site, the existing use of the overflow parking area, the absence of evidence demonstrating resulting highway safety problems, and the management measures in place, officers do not consider that the proposal would result in an unacceptable impact on highway safety nor that the residual cumulative impacts on the transport network would be severe.”
The additional parking is currently accessed via the existing car park with an entrance on Braymere Road, which has gates that lock when the premises is empty.