From: Councillor John C Noeken, BEM Portfolio Holder for Planning & Economic Development Salisbury District Council The Council Offices Bourne Hill Salisbury SP1 3UZ

Robert Key, MP
House of Commons
LONDON
SW1 1AA

Our Ref: RK/ST/JS
Date: 16th December 2004 :

Dear Robert,

Thank you for your letter referring to the issue of car parking for the benefit of commuters using Salisbury Railway Station.

To give you some background as well as the readers of your website, a Planning Application was first registered in 2001 (Reference 2001.0622). This entailed the use of land South of St Paul’s Road, (Off Fisherton Street), Salisbury as a Car park and Freight Terminal, together with the construction of a new access.

During the Planning process, the Freight Terminal was deleted at the behest of the City Area Committee. The City Area Committee had also expressed concern regarding the closure and demolition of the Railway Social Club that stands on the site and officers of the council were instructed to explore alternative sites for the re-location of the club with the applicants, Network Rail.

The applicants finally responded that they were unwilling to comply with this requirement and also then tabled the possibility of increasing the number of car parking spaces. Due to the considerable amount of time that the application had been registered and the view of the planning office that the public should be involved in the process the applicants were advised to withdraw the application and to re-submit, once they were clear as to what they wanted authorised, given this changing position.

That application was finally withdrawn on the 14th May 2004.

Contrary to what you may have heard from Network Rail or SouthWest Trains in recent weeks, I can confirm that at this point in time, that there is no outstanding planning application for Salisbury District Council to determine.

With regards to the perceived difference in policy stance between the District and County authorities, that you refer to, I can also confirm that if the car park were to be provided without a robust management system, that prevented use by commuters or shoppers to Salisbury, then the county would certainly be correct in interpreting this proposal as being contrary to policy.

However, it has always been a fundamental objective in processing this proposal that the parking should only be for the benefit of rail users and it has been on this premise that negotiations and meetings have taken place. Therefore, I see no difference in interpretation of policy provided that these safeguards are ensured.

SouthWest Trains are involved, as they have always been keen to provide further car parking for rail users. Although SouthWest Trains are not the freeholders of the land, the council are under the impression that a commercial agreement would be made between the two parties and the day-to-day management of the car park would fall to SouthWest Trains with Network Rail retaining ownership of the land.

As a council, we are of course not privy to those commercial negotiations and enquiries would need to be made direct with the relevant parties. At this time, I can also confirm that no current discussions are taking place with Network Rail or SouthWest Trains and we are under no notice that an application is imminent other than that implied in the copies of correspondence from those two parties that you kindly provided.

I hope this has clarified the current position. You, with your website readers can be assured that as and when a Planning Application is received for a rail user car park, this council will do all it can to expedite a speedy conclusion, this of course will include full consultation with all relevant parties. As echoed in today’s Salisbury Journal, the council has been quoted from a previous article on this subject which stated, “The council (SDC) was keen to encourage adequate parking to be provided at the station because rail was a sustainable method of travel”. Nothing has changed to alter that earlier statement.

I am copying this to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Salisbury Joint Transport Committee as well as the Leader of the Council, Cllr Kevin Wren with whom you discussed this issue last week.

Best Wishes

John Noeken