As reported in today's "Courier", I am pleased with progress thus far with the proposed new multi-storey car park in Hunter Street, in place of the existing surface car parking facilities.The City Engineer has advised me that the project has been advertised in the European Journal. The assessment panel has now been identified and the assessments will be done over the next few weeks.
A detailed project programme is about to be prepared but the design, procurement and construction will likely be about 2 and a half years so the car park/retail unit can be expected to be complete around December 2011/January 2012, all going well.
The new facility will provide much needed additional car parking close to the university and I hope this will relieve some of the parking problems in some West End streets.
However, it will by no means fully resolve the parking issues right across the West End. Parking consultants Buchanans were, last year, engaged to call out survey work on ways of improving parking and their report is with the City Council. It had been the intention of the previous administration to bring the outcomes of the report to committee at the end of April, but under the new administration this has yet to happen.
It is important that city councillors get the opportunity to discuss the parking issues and debate the way forward, for the benefit of residents in the five areas of Dundee the parking research was carried out in. I hope we will see progress on this matter soon.