A PROJECT to create more than 100 extra car parking spaces in Tavistock could be shelved.

It is feared it may become an expensive white elephant and a constant drain on the public purse.

Town councillors at their meeting this week heard that just to break even, daily fees in a proposed new car park in Pixon Lane would need to be fixed at £2.75 plus per day — 75p more than the daily rate at Riverside Car Park, which is closer to the town centre.

The town council has already agreed to borrow around £700,000 to create the 103-space car park on unmade land it owns in Pixon Lane, adjacent to Tavistock Livestock Market.

The project is phased and would ultimately include the creation of a new works depot and two lettable units, involving a further loan.

But members now fear the new car park could be too far from town to be economically viable — and one even suggested re-visiting the concept of a multi-storey car park in Bedford Car Park.

Cllr Ted Sherrell has consistently opposed the Pixon Lane scheme, claiming it could become 'an expensive white elephant'.

He said: 'I went through Riverside Car Park this morning at about 11.30 and it was about two thirds full. I've rarely seen it full and that's £2 a day. It's an easy walk to town.

'Pixon Lane is further away, up a hill and to have any chance of getting people in there, £1.50 a day is more than enough — I think possibly too high.'

The committee was told that, working on the assumption that half the new parking spaces would be filled on a daily basis, the council would be subsidising the car park to the tune of about £37,000 a year.

The car park could not be used for public parking on livestock market days — around 20 a year.

They were also told that the market tenant, Ward and Chowen, had refused 'point blank' to pay for lorry parking on those days.

Cllr Philip Sanders said: 'There doesn't appear to be anything in the business case for the car park for resurfacing, re-lining, maintenance etc. We will have to build in some sort of depreciation — the potential impact on the precept could be considerably greater.'

Cllr Mandy Govier asked if the idea of building a multi-storey car park in Bedford Car Park had ever been re-visited. 'I still think that would be a far better deal,' she said.

The committee was told this was one of the first options Tavistock's parking focus group had investigated — but that West Devon borough Council's planning officers had advised it would be impossible.

Cllr Michael Harper was worried the Pixon Lane project costs could 'spiral out of control'.

'It seems to me it's in danger of being a money pit that we can't walk away from,' he said.

Finance committee chairman Harry Smith said: 'It's very clear that the car park in Pixon Lane will not be self-financing, but will need to be subsidised — and probably subsidised for as long as it remains.'

He proposed that, given the financial concerns, no further action be taken on the project until it had been debated by the full council next Tuesday.