Lucy Buckland

lucy.buckland@essnmedia.co.uk

COULSDON'S newest car park has been forced to close despite an offer to allow drivers to park for free temporarily.

Management company Star Park also wants to set up a market at its site in Brighton Road.

But council bosses ordered Star Park to shut its facility last week after ruling it was operating illegally, less than a week after it opened.

A company spokesman said the car park has now shut but added that every effort had been made with the council – even offering free parking for motorists while an application for retrospective planning permission is considered.

He said: "It is a great shame Croydon Council has taken such a robust attitude to this car park as all we want to do is create an amenity space. We are even working with Croydon Economic Development Company to hold a weekly market on the site.

"The former Red Lion site was an eyesore, we cleaned it up. It is quite within the council's capacity to withdraw its stop notice and allow us to operate, for free, while the retrospective planning application is processed."

Support has gathered for the car park since it opened for business on August 1 – with some claiming the council, which shut it down five days later, doesn't want to lose out on the profit from its own Lion Green Road car park nearby.

Coulsdon resident John Gallagher said: "I think the council's decision to force the closure demonstrates its lack of desire to consult locally and is another example of how it takes advantage of its powers to challenge things it does not agree with while letting things it agrees with get passed without scrutiny.

"I think a car park in the centre of Coulsdon, even a temporary one, could offer greater choice for shoppers and businesses alike."

Traffic expert Peter Morgan, who has started a petition in support of the car park, said the council should be working with Aldi, the owners of the former Red Lion site, and Star Park – not shutting them down.

His petition, which has more than 40 signatures, states that people welcome the car park as a temporary solution.

Mr Morgan added: "The council's action in forcing the car park to close was incomprehensible and sends out wholly the wrong message to the wider public.

"The grounds given by the council were absurd."

Derrick East, from Old Coulsdon, said: "It seems a complete nonsense to us that, having caused so much disruption and spent a large sum of taxpayers' money supposedly to improve Coulsdon, the council has left the eyesore of the Red Lion site right in the centre of the town.

"Can we please have some common sense applied here with something useful being done with the site?"

A Croydon Council spokesman said: "As previously stated, a retrospective planning application can be submitted."