Why Perth city centre could have 509 fewer car parking spaces

Council bosses want to build a new leisure centre in Perth on the site of Thimblerow car park.

Perth and Kinross councillors will be asked to vote through a package of measures next week – including the PH2O proposal geared up to bring more people to the city centre.

But the plans mean there will be 509 fewer car parking spaces.

Why?

Perth city centre car parking numbers

There are currently 1,134 spaces at the following city centre sites named in the proposals – 205 at Thimblerow, 374 at Dewars Centre and Perth Leisure Centre on Glover Street and 555 at Kinnoull Street multi-storey car park.

The local authority would only retain 70 spaces at Thimblerow – ditching 135 – for the new complex.

And the masterplan features hundreds of homes being built at Dewars Centre, meaning the loss of 374 spaces.

To offset this, Perth and Kinross chiefs propose buying Kinnoull Street car park, currently leased to the council who sub-lease it to Smart Parking Ltd.

The local authority sees this a way of mitigating the reduction of council-owned car parks in the city centre.

However, as the 555 spaces are already in existence and available to the public and council staff, it doesn’t reduce the overall loss of car parking.

The total number of spaces between the three sites, should the proposals be green lit, would be 625 – 509 fewer than there are now.

For the proposals to proceed, the full council will have to agree to them when members meet next Wednesday.