£12,000 plan to expand car park in Kingsclere

KINGSCLERE Parish Council has agreed to spend a five-figure sum to give the William Holding Field car park a much-needed refurbishment.

The decision to commit funding was made at a meeting on Monday.

The plan, which has yet to be approved by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, is to expand the car park by 40 per cent.

This will involve moving the gate and the posts and removing and re-laying the concrete. The entrance and the boundary near King Alfred Terrace will also be tidied up.

In addition, the cricket strip will be dug out as it is becoming hazardous.

Councillor Clive Mussett led the discussion at the parish council meeting on Monday and said he had received three quotes under tender.

He said the council had been quoted between £13,500 and £21,295 for the work.

The parish council has only put by £12,000, so is hoping to negotiate to ensure the work is carried out within budget.

Mr Mussett said: “Funnily enough the one that is actually the lowest quote was the party who did the car park last time, but I am confident they can all do the work quite adequately. And they were all compliant in terms of instructions to respond.

“But again we are over budget. Even if those values are bashed down a bit we are still over budget.”

One of the parties was planning to limit the soil removed from the site and would use excess soil dug out of one area to level the cricket strip and to reprofile some of the banks.

Councillor Fiona Sawyer made the point that the contract should also specify that the edging should be replanted with hawthorn rather than laurel, as has been suggested by the tendees.

The Kingsclere Neighbourhood Plan states that contractors should use native foliage and laurel is not listed.

Councillor Nicola Peach added: “We should probably follow our own list with this.”

Mr Mussett assured the council that there were no concerns about the specific plants to be used by the contractors and this change won’t alter the price.

All the councillors agreed to continue with the tendering process and chairman John Sawyer said: “This is of course subject to planning permission. We are happy for councillor Mussett to negotiate a price.”

Councillor Sue Adams is working on the planning application. However, Mr Mussett said he wanted to make some changes in the specification in the form of hard edging between the gate posts to prevent lorries from eroding the edges.