Newberries car park

As with all our assets, we keep them under regular review. This helps to ensure we achieve the best financial value on behalf of all our communities in the borough.

We’ve been assessing the future potential of the site since 2016 and this has included significant and extensive consultation with local stakeholders, including community groups.

We have made no firm decisions on the future of the site at this time.

The Environment Agency has been undertaking lengthy assessments of flood risk at the site over recent years, and their findings have added technical complexities which necessitate further detailed work to help determine the most viable solution for the future of the site.

For that reason, we have decided to ‘test’ the market to understand if there is private sector interest in pursuing future options for the site, whilst still retaining the same parking provision and making more efficient and effective use of the overall site; adding to the high street offer and bringing other benefits to the area.

We are advised that both the council as a corporate entity and individual councillors owe a common law fiduciary duty to the council tax payer at large, which is why one of the governing Nolan principles is ‘stewardship’.

For the council as a corporate entity, this fiduciary duty complements the statutory best value duty imposed by Section 3 of the Local Government Act 1999 and, as steward of the public purse, the council must keep its property assets under review and seek alternative uses or a commercial return from under-used or under-performing property assets.

Newberries Car Park was only added to our strategic risk register because the council, under its previous administration, having identified the car park as an underused asset, then abandoned an income-generating scheme for the provision of a hotel and food store on the site; having expended over £700,000 of public funds bringing the scheme to maturity - the identified risk, being the loss of that investment if an income-generating scheme was not brought forward.

This risk register is reviewed by the council’s independent external auditors on a regular basis. Impartial council officers, including the statutory officers with legal responsibility for ensuring the council acts lawfully, have been clear in their advice that the fiduciary duty owed to the taxpayer compels the council to explore ways in which the investment to date in Newberries Car Park can be realised, minimally to recover the expenditure incurred to date.

We expect to receive submissions from any interested parties by the end of June 2025. Any future programme of work we undertake will depend on the level of interest from the market.

Borough councillors from all wards across Hertsmere, whose roles include listening to and representing your views, will have an opportunity to review and debate the options presented and decide on the best way forward.

Our Statement of Community Involvement sets out our policy for involving the community in the preparation and revision of planning documents.

If there is to be any development of the car park, we would also expect any developer to ensure there has been an opportunity for local residents and stakeholders to have their say.

Our website and social media channels will be updated when there are any key updates with this project: www.hertsmere.gov.uk/newberries. We will also update this list of FAQs when necessary.