Town centre regeneration given thumbs up

4:58pm Wednesday 16th July 2008

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The blueprint for the regeneration of Kingston over the coming decades was given the green light last night at a council meeting.

But the Tories abstained in protest at the lack of parking spaces in the K+20 Kingston Town Centre Area Action Plan.

An independent planning inspector appointed by the Secretary of State stepped in earlier this year and ruled that the strategy could not contain the option for another 700 new spaces.

Every one of the 21 Conservative members declined to vote, leaving the Lib Dem administration to carry the vote.

Tory leader Howard Jones said: "I am not happy about the car parking section. I don't want to vote in favour of this document as it carries some information in it I may have to object to in the future."

Lib Dem leader Derek Osborne, who voted to approve the scheme, said: "The inspector has made his own view and we are at the point at which we have to accept that."

He also denied the credit crunch would harm the overall plan saying so far Kingston was not "suffering" to the extent of other shopping centres.

A decision on which contractor has won the bid to do the work on the Eden Quarter is currently being made.