£2.5m bill to demolish Kirkcaldy’s ugly, under used multi-storey carparks

But to demolish them and clear the site for future development could cost Fife Council up to £2.4m,a new report is set to tell councillors.

The document outlining the options for the future will be put before Kirkcaldy area committee when it meets next week.

The preferred option is to raze both buildings, create a surface car park where the closed Thistle Street car park currently sits, and open up a vast site to developers which could include the Esplanade car park space and the adjacent land left empty after the demolition of the old swimming pool.

Talks are on going with the owners of the Mercat Shopping Centre - which bought the pool for £1 - to assess the potential of amalgamating the sites. The buildings - dubbed a “serious eyesore” by the report - have long been a scar on the landscape, and are seen by many as a barrier to fully developing the town’s waterfront.

Councillors recently attended a workshop to study the options, and the costs, and their discussions next week could begin moves towards a final course of action.

There is still a lot of talking to be done with community consultation, and a market assessment report which is due later in February.

The report reveals the proposed demolition, site clearance and restoration would cost in the region of £2.1m - £2.4m based on forecasted costs for 2023.

But multi-storey carparks have been poorly used in recent years - they have operated at around 25% occupancy - and become the target of anti-social behaviour.

In 2022, the average parking occupancy in the Esplanade multi-storey car park was around 13% and parking demand in Kirkcaldy town centre has not returned to pore-COVID levels.

The town’s car and lorry parking account is currently operating at a deficit, anticipated to be in the region of £440,000 to £500,000 following a “significant decline” in parking occupancy and revenue.

A £2 all day parking trial launched in January 2022 ran for six months. Just over 3000 visitors paid to park in the Thistle Street car park during that time - an average of 17 per day - which was a marginal increase.

But, overall, long-stay parking demand in the town centre did not rise, nor did town centre parking demand in general with a a migration from other long-stay car parks to the Thistle Street multi-storey car park to take advantage of the cheaper rates.

A market assessment has been now been commissioned, and its findings could hold the key to the next steps taken by councillors. It will be available later next month.

Councillors have also been told that while there is parking capacity to cope with the loss of the two multi-storeys, there could be problems during the busy Christmas period when there are more cars than there are spaces available.

The report will be presented to councillors on Wednesday, and opened up for debate among committee members.