Plans have been unveiled for a Warwick car park.

Warwickshire County Council has revealed it is priming Cape Road Car Park in Warwick for affordable housing.

Portfolio holder for transport and planning Cllr Stephen Shaw revealed the plans during last week's meeting of full council.

It was in response to further questions over the future of the county council's derelict Barrack Street offices next to Shire Hall, empty buildings that are costing the authority more than £265,000 per year in business rates and maintenance.

Cape Road car park was made available for daytime public use during Covid but was controversially reserved for council permit holders – predominantly staff – during office hours from March 2025. It is available to the public on evenings and weekends.

Cllr John Holland, a long-term advocate of regenerating Barrack Street, accused the Reform UK cabinet – the panel of councillors that runs the county council – of "blocking" 13-year-old plans to convert it into affordable housing and business units for start-ups.

It has been said a number of times in public meetings that such plans would not be viable and in March, the county's scrutiny panel heard in secret the options to do something with the eyesore.

The council defended the secrecy, stating the non-financial elements had been kept private to avoid "unnecessary concern or speculation".

In a subsequent council meeting, Cllr Shaw declared that demolition and replacement with a new multi-storey car park was the top option, albeit for any new authority after local government reorganisation. At that time the reshuffle of Warwickshire councils was due to take place by April 2028 but it has since been delayed by the government.

Having requested a point of clarification on Cllr Holland's latest comments, Cllr Shaw told council last week: "When I was on the finance and property portfolio we went over and over this about Barrack Street.

"That piece of land is not suitable for affordable housing. The main thing for us is finding sites that (can deliver) affordable housing and we have the car park, Cape Road.

"I have spoken to you in great depth about using Cape Road for affordable housing. Barrack Street needs to be kept as a car park, it needs to be taken down and rebuilt again so it is structurally sound.

"We keep talking about getting people into the town centre and struggling with parking. That is the solution, using Cape Road as affordable housing.

"You keep going on about Barrack Street and affordable housing, it is not financially viable for anyone and you know this but you keep bringing it up and bringing it up. It is not going to happen."

In a later debate, Cllr Holland referred back to the comments as an "excellent example of how councillors can work together".

"I want derelict town centre sites dealt with. Councillor Shaw proposed affordable house building on the Cape Road car park, centralising all our staff car parking on a new building on the Barrack Street site," he said.

"It isn't what I asked for but it meets my requirements, so fine. I would still be concerned that the Reform cabinet hasn't done it but we keep going."