PART of a multi-storey car park in the town centre will be demolished and re-built after Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council gave the go-ahead to the scheme.

As previously reported by The Gazette, the owner of Festival Place is planning to demolish part of the shopping centre’s car park, which is currently not being used, as it requires “major maintenance and repair”.

As part of the plan, the current structure, which was built in the 1960s, will be demolished and replaced with a new parking area by October 2015.

The project would involve a temporary loss of around 250 car parking spaces from January when the scheme is set to start. It will also mean that shoppers wishing to use the Festival Place car park will need to use the main entrance on Festival Way.

However, to minimise disruption to shoppers, the owners of the shopping centre approached the borough council for permission to create a temporary bridge to link the 540 spaces at the council-owned car park in The Malls with the existing car park at Festival Place.

And the borough council’s Cabinet, excluding Councillor John Izett and Councillor Ranil Jayawardena who were absent, voted in favour of the scheme on Tuesday night to temporarily merge the two car parks.

As a result of the decision, parking costs at the Festival Place car park will be lowered throughout the scheme to the current prices charged by the borough council at The Malls, which will mean disabled car users will be able to park for free and shoppers will benefit from free bank holiday parking.

Leader of the borough council, Cllr Clive Sanders told the meeting that the merger needed to be done to “allow people using Festival Place to park”, adding: “It has the side benefit that the cost of parking will reduce to the level of parking charges operated by the borough council which is somewhat cheaper.”

Steven Connolly, centre director at Festival Place, said: “We are delighted with the support from the council, and will now be starting the discussions on how we can deliver this project as seamlessly as possible for our customers.

“As a centre accredited with the Park Mark award for our commitment to parking safety and excellence, we’re thrilled to be able to upgrade the older section of our car park to give visitors a premium shopping experience when they visit Festival Place.”