Bute Street car park to close as part of Luton town centre redevelopment

The Bute Street Shoppers car park will close to the public this month as the council prepares to start work on redeveloping the town centre.

The car park will close from May 22, but will be used temporarily for pre-booked parking for BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival goers from May 24 to 26.

The council said that its recently developed draft car parking strategy “shows that we already have enough spaces in the town centre. These include for example, The Mall’s two multi-storey car parks, Vicarage Street, Crawley Road, Hitchin Road, and Library Road.”

Last year, Luton Borough Council revealed its plans to redevelop the town centre, by building more homes, a new community space and shops near the train station.

At the time, Pressure group Save Our Town welcomed the £20m grant from the Levelling Up fund to be put towards the borough council’s The Stage project on the site of the car park. But it raised concerns about how the area would look.

The group said: “With more flats around The Stage, the town centre and railway station gateway will soon resemble a Soviet-era post-war city.”

It added: “A multi-purpose entertainment and events venue with maximum flexibility surely has priority over more flats. We believe the balance is wrong and contradicts the aims of the master plan.

“Luton remains behind Dunstable, Aylesbury, Stevenage, St Albans and Milton Keynes for a theatre or events venue. With this funding, now is surely the time to readdress that balance.”

The project is a planned mixed-use development, made up of nearly 400 new homes, offices, community areas, performance space, shops and a cycle hub.

Chairman of Save Our Town, Andy King said: “It's quite a complex, multifaceted situation, it’s better to have what we what they're planning to do than nothing at all.

“The town is desperately in need of an alternative or competitor to The Grove in Dunstable and the Gordon Craig in Stevenage. So we were advocating for a theatre style venue, but something that was flexible in terms of design.”

In its proposal, the council said: “We are proposing to deliver over 400 new homes, flexible community space including for performances and events, workspace, retail, a new cycle hub for the town centre, and improved public realm.”

Following the opening up of the River Lea in the Hat Gardens pocket park, the council’s next project to transform this area of town is The Stage.

Cllr James Taylor portfolio holder for Regeneration and Inclusive Growth at Luton Council said: “We know the car park is popular for people using the town centre but plans have been to develop this space rather than it be used for parking and our recently developed draft car parking strategy shows we have already enough available spaces in the town centre. We hope people will appreciate how much more appealing this area will look once it has been re-developed.”