The demolition of a multi-storey car park in Lichfield will begin next month, the leader of Lichfield District Council has said.
The Birmingham Road facility is due to be demolished as part of city centre regeneration plans.
It is expected to take around six months for the car park to be pulled down and the land cleared.
Cllr Doug Pullen, leader of the council, said the aesthetics of the multi-storey were not the reason it was being demolished:
“The 26 week work programme begins in May, but it’s useful to remember why we’re bringing the car park down.
“There are lots of reasons, but brutalist architecture is not the reason why. We are bringing it down because it is a fundamental part of the regeneration of the Birmingham Road Site.
“It allows us to create that plaza around the empty Debenhams building, it allows a cinema to come forward, it allows food and beverage units to come forward too.
“It also provides the link through from the Birmingham Road Site to Three Spires which has long been an ambition of this council to ensure we can allow that free movement from the train station right through to the city centre.”
Cllr Doug Pullen
But Cllr Sue Woodward, leader of the Labour opposition group said Conservatives had previoulsy supported retaining the car park.
“In 2019 I called in the decision for this council to invest £300,000 in what was already a defunct car park in terms of its structure,” she said.
“I want to correct Cllr Pullen in his comment this has been a long-standing ambition – only five years ago the ambition was to spend a third of a million pounds on renovation for that car park.
Cllr Sue Woodward
