Winchester City Council will spend up to £480,000 at its own risk on a planning bid to close the 165-space St Peter's car park and build 44 affordable homes.
Winchester City Council has authorised up to £480,000 of spending to prepare a planning application that would close St Peter’s car park and build 44 affordable homes on it. The council’s own report is explicit that the money is at risk: if planning is refused, or the scheme is found not to be viable, the fees are written off.
The decision was taken by Cabinet on 25 August, alongside the Central Winchester Regeneration business case, and comes into force on 3 September unless it is called in by 2 September (decision 1491).
The site
St Peter’s car park sits between North Walls and St Bede’s Primary School, with Hyde Abbey Road and Gordon Road nearby. It covers 0.459 hectares and has 165 spaces. It is one of ten central car parks, which together offer around 1,500 spaces at the city’s highest tariffs.
The council bought the land to build council housing. It became a car park while the Brooks Centre was under construction and, in the report’s words, “has remained as a temporary car park ever since”. The newly adopted Local Plan allocates it for housing under Policy W3, for 30 dwellings (CAB3565, St Peter’s car park proposed affordable housing scheme).
What is proposed
Architecture PLB was asked in June 2026 to refresh an earlier capacity study. The scheme it produced goes beyond the Local Plan allocation:
- 40 one and two-bedroom flats
- four three-bedroom houses
- parking restricted to two or three car-club vehicles, plus private spaces for accessible homes
- the St Swithun’s Way long distance footpath, which crosses the site from North Walls to Gordon Road, kept open, including during construction
About a quarter of the car park falls inside the conservation area. The site sits next to an Air Quality Management Area and beside a flood risk area, so noise, air quality, contaminated land and flood risk assessments all have to be done before an application goes in. An archaeological assessment is on the list too.
Why 44 and not 30
The report ties the mix straight to the district’s waiting list. As at April 2026, 1,698 households were registered with Hampshire Home Choice for a home in the Winchester district, and about two thirds of them need a single bedroom.
The council says it has built or acquired 364 affordable homes since 2020, with 124 more under construction, against a target of 1,000 by 2032. A separate scheme by Places for People would put around 80 affordable homes on the council’s Bar End depot site.
What it costs, and what it loses
The £480,000 covers surveys, site investigation and professional fees to get to a planning application. It comes from the unallocated new homes capital budget.
The car park itself earns money. In 2025/26 it produced gross income of about £395,000 in parking and enforcement revenue. The council expects to keep most of that, on the argument that drivers will park in other council car parks with capacity, though it accepts some will shift to cheaper options such as park and ride and that income will be lost. It would save £33,000 a year in business rates, plus resurfacing and relining costs.
The scheme is expected to qualify for government grant through the Brownfield Land Release Fund and Homes England. Even with that, the report puts the likely council subsidy, drawn from section 106 affordable housing commuted sums, “in the region of £8m”.
The council’s own risk register lists the obvious objection: that losing a city centre car park “may not be supported by all the community”. Its answer is that the site is allocated for housing in the adopted Local Plan, which was consulted on. Separately, the report confirms the Cattle Market car park will stay open until a northern park and ride has been delivered.
What happens next, and when
There is a long way to go. The next step is community consultation before an application is submitted. After planning consent, the council would tender a design and build contract, and only then would a final business case decide whether to proceed at all.
That final decision is not expected until the 2027/28 financial year, and the report says it will go to “the Cabinet of the shadow authority (or successor body)”, a reference to local government reorganisation in Hampshire.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes at the car park yet. It stays open through the planning and tender stages, and no closure date has been set. Our guide to parking in Winchester has the current tariffs and the other central car parks.
- You get two chances to comment: the council’s own pre-application consultation, and then the statutory planning consultation once an application is validated. Watch our Winchester planning news page for the application reference.
- If you are on the housing register, the homes are years away. The final go-ahead is not expected before 2027/28 and construction follows that.
- The St Swithun’s Way stays open. The report commits to keeping the footpath accessible through construction.
Sources
- Winchester City Council, decision 1491: St Peter’s car park proposed affordable housing scheme, 25 August 2026
- CAB3565, St Peter’s car park proposed affordable housing scheme, Cabinet, 25 August 2026
- Housing need figures: Hampshire Home Choice Annual Report 2026, as reported in CAB3565
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