PLANS have been submitted to Winchester City Council to turn part of a city centre car park into a last-mile logistics hub.
If approved it could see a big drop in the number of delivery vehicles that clog the city centre and regularly cause congestion, delaying hundreds of journeys daily.
One problem spot is St George's Street, a two-lane carriageway that often gets reduced to a single lane, backing up traffic around Upper brook Street and Friarsgate.
The plans by Jigsaw Planning on behalf of Decarbon Logistics Solutions concern the Friarsgate Car Park on Tanner Street.
The proposal will see the removal of eight parking spaces in the basement to provide space to store and charge up to 10 cargo bikes, as well as the removal of two more spaces in the basement level to create room for smaller delivery vehicles to unload.
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The application also proposes the removal of four parking spaces in the surface level – to be replaced with staff welfare facilities and space for larger delivery vehicles to unload.
Overall, the development would lead to the permanent loss of 14 parking spaces reducing capacity from 72 to 58. The primary use of the car park would remain unchanged.
If approved, the plans would see a delivery van drop off parcels at the hub which would then be sorted into routings and distributed to their final destination using the cargo bikes.
The planning statement included with the application says: “Decarbon Logistics Solutions helps logistics providers get closer to their customers by connecting their client locations, spaces and services. The results deliver improved business efficiencies, reduced driving, less congestion and falling carbon emissions through sustainable solutions.
“One element of their work is providing infrastructure to operate the last mile logistics hubs.
“Essentially what this means is providing space within car parks to store and charge cargo bikes. A delivery van drops off the parcels which are then distributed all within 24 hours to their final destination using the cargo bikes.
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“Solent Transport (ST) is a partnership between Hampshire County Council (HCC), Isle of Wight Council (IOW), Portsmouth City Council (PCC) and Southampton City Council (SCC) delivering a programme of innovative transport projects for the Department for Transport’s Future Transport Zone (FTZ). Such development proposals are supported within Solent Transport’s ‘Future Transport Zone’ (April 2024) which looks to implement micro-consolidation logistics into Winchester and Portsmouth. Our client has been working closely with Solent Transport and Winchester City Council on the development of this project.
“Micro-consolidation helps reduce the number of individual deliveries that are made to homes and businesses. By grouping deliveries, fewer vehicles are required to distribute all the parcels to the surrounding homes and businesses. The proposed operation of the site will help reduce vehicle mileage within the City of Winchester as the development will reduce the number of individual deliveries and the proposed deliveries will be made via cargo bikes rather than multiple cars or vans.”
To see more information, visit the council online planning portal, reference 24/01997/FUL.
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