By Jason Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter

A cruise parking company operating from St Denys Road has launched an appeal against a council planning decision which is having a “material impact on the business”.

 

Southampton City Council approved Cruise Azure Parking’s retrospective application to use a former car showroom site for passenger vehicle parking.

The local authority stipulated that the site must operate as a park and ride facility, with the business not permitted to collect vehicles from the cruise terminal.

Cruise Azure Parking is challenging this restriction as it wants to offer a meet-and-greet service alongside allowing customers to park their cars at the St Denys Road site and take a shuttle to the port.

In its statement of case, the company said: “The proposal for a secure, licensed meet-and-greet cruise parking operation at 21–35 St Denys Road represents a sustainable and appropriate reuse of a previously commercial site.

“The council’s reason for refusal focuses on speculative assumptions about traffic generation, without fully considering the operational model or benefits of a well-managed, staff-driven meet-and-greet system.

“Unlike ad-hoc or customer-driven parking models, this service involves controlled vehicle movements carried out only by trained staff, reduces passenger traffic to and from the port terminal, helps alleviate port-side congestion through off-site management and makes more efficient use of an underutilised urban site.”

The statement said the condition in the planning permission, which was issued in June, had caused a reduction in operations and “already had a material impact on the business”.

It added: “Approval of this appeal would allow the appellant to operate transparently, professionally, and under enforceable planning conditions – delivering a needed service for cruise passengers while protecting the local environment and transport network.”

The operational restrictions condition also specified that there must always be on-site management presence when the site is in use, the entrance must be kept clear at all times and shuttle buses should aim to depart once full in order to consolidate multiple car journeys into one minibus trip.

The council’s planning department said it imposed these measures “to provide safe access to the development and to prevent congestion on and obstruction of the highway”.

The appeal has been lodged with the Planning Inspectorate, with final comments from both Cruise Azure Parking and the council due by September 24.

The site in St Denys Road was previously home to Church Garage.

There have been mutliple proposals to build housing on the land rejected by the local authority, while an application for two three-storey student accommodation buildings was withdrawn in February.