Fareham Borough Council has announced that preparations for the demolition of the outdated and underused Osborn Road multi storey car park are scheduled to begin on Monday 8 January 2024.
The car park will be officially closed to the public from Tuesday 2 January to allow the team and equipment to be relocated. The site will then be handed over to the contractors, Neilcott Construction Ltd.
The Osborn Road multi storey car park will be replaced with a new surface car park with larger parking spaces and will benefit from four electric vehicle charging points, with the capacity to add a further 12 if required.
As the result of a competitive tender process, Neilcott Construction Limited were awarded the contract for demolition of Osborn Road multi storey car park. The new Fareham Live car park will open in time for the first big performances at Fareham Live in 2024.
The work has been scheduled for the early New Year so that shoppers are not affected during the busy Christmas period. It is also a time when most local residents will have their doors and windows firmly closed, so any disruption will be minimised.
In the meantime, residents are reminded that the Fareham Shopping Centre multi storey car park is still available and leads directly into the shopping centre. There are, in fact, more than 1,000 car parking spaces still available within walking distance of the town centre.
Cllr Seán Woodward, Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council, said: “It is important that we do not close the Osborn Road multistorey ahead of or during the busy Christmas period. However, the New Year is the perfect opportunity to say goodbye to this underutilised car park which has served us well over the last 50 years but is now well beyond economic repair. I will be pleased to see a much more practical and attractive surface car park in 2024, in line with the opening of our new arts and entertainment venue Fareham Live, when we will have many hundreds of spaces within a couple of minutes’ walk of the new venue and the shopping centre.”
Further details on town centre car parks can be found at www.fareham.gov.uk/parking