'80-bed hotel near railway station will cause parking chaos, say residents'

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From thisisgloucestershire:

Controversial plans to build an 80-bedroom hotel without a car park opposite Cheltenham Spa railway station have been met with disbelief by residents.
Developer St Croix wants to build the hotel on the site of the old Alpha filling station to cater for visitors arriving in Cheltenham by train.
Agents have already brokered a deal with Network Rail to use 30 spaces in the station's 150-space car park.
But nearby residents say the car park is filled with commuters every day and any increase in traffic will lead to parking chaos.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From thisisgloucestershire:

Engineer slams railway station hotel plans

Parking chaos could be created if a scheme to build an 80-bedroom hotel opposite Cheltenham Spa railway station gets the go-ahead, according to consultants.

Developer St Croix says a hotel on the site of the old Alpha filling station would cater for visitors arriving in the town by train and not result in guests parking in surrounding streets. But a consultant hired by Cheltenham Borough Council to comment on the application said a scheme to share car park spaces with the railway station was unlikely to work.

His report said: "I am not convinced that this is a suitable location for a hotel of this size with no associated parking. I understand that positive discussions with Network Rail for shared parking spaces have taken place. This is of some concern because the railway station car park is already at capacity during the day. This is likely to lead to increased on-street parking demand in the immediate surrounding streets and would be likely to lead to an increase in indiscriminate parking. Although there would appear to be car parking available on streets within 400 metres walking distance of the site, on-street parking should not be seen as a replacement for a lack of off-street parking."

[eightf48544]

Interesting there is a similar scheme for a hotel opposite Maidenhead station slighly smaller but very little carparking.

Those of you that know Maidenhead station will know it's a devil to get to by road as it's basically on a one system. Although the back entrance when open is on a two way road it's not one where you can easily make a U turn so you have still have to go round the one way.

However, it just goes to show how muddled our provison of transport is now. In Victorian days an hotel by a railway station was a gereat assset and many railway companies built there grand hotels close or even on the staion especially in large towns. A large number are still in existance although long since sold off by the railways.

Now it seems they are coming back into fashion but without taking into to account the changed way people travel. Whilst it would be ideal if every guest in a station hotel travelld by public transport that's probably unrealistic except perhaps in London. We therefore have to expect most guests to arrive by car.

In addition many hotels try to maximise income by holding conferences, weddings  and dinners for organisations many of which  might be for local residents so you could expect most of those visitors to arrive by car unless there was an exceptionally good late evening local bus or train service.

Realistically with an 80 bed hotel without hospitality suites you would  need at least 50 car parking places per night, but with hospitality provision at least 100 or maybe more depending on capacity.

How you povide such capacity in the centre of Cheltenham or Maidenhead I don't know.

[Electric train]

It is not uncommon for the likes of Travel Inn etc when they build an inner city / town hotel not to have any car parking, relaying on other local providers.   

[willc]

Cheltenham Spa station could hardly be described as central - it's a good mile or more out from the centre.

It would be interesting to know the nature of this deal alleged deal with Network Rail, since, as the council says, the car park is usually at or near capacity most weekdays. As far as I know, the car park is managed by Apcoa for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) as the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) running the station, so I'm not sure what they'll make of losing a chunk of already limited parking at such a busy station.