A SCHEME which will see part of the Festival Place car park demolished and rebuilt has been given the green light by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

As previously reported by The Gazette, the owner of Festival Place unveiled plans to demolish part of the shopping centre’s car park, which is currently not being used, as it requires “major maintenance and repair”.

As part of the plan, the current structure, which was built in the 1960s, will be demolished and replaced with a new parking area by October 2015 and it would mean a temporary loss of around 250 car parking spaces.

To help minimise disruption to shoppers, the borough council’s Cabinet approved plans to create a temporary bridge to link the 540 spaces at the council- owned car park in The Malls, with the existing car park at Festival Place, after they were approached by the shopping centre’s bosses.

The scheme has now been given an added boost after the borough council’s planning officers approved a planning application for the scheme.

However, officers at the council have requested more information on the scheme before construction work can start, including a traffic management plan and a construction schedule.

When construction work starts on the car park, conditions have been placed on the scheme, which says that the temporary ramp linking the two car parks will not be used between 11pm and 7am to protect the “occupier of nearby properties”

and work on the scheme can only take place between 7am and 6pm, Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm on Saturdays.

When The Gazette approached Festival Place for a comment, a spokesperson said there “isn’t anything the team can share at the moment”.

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