Lancaster City Council has announced proposals for new affordable homes as part of Lancaster’s Canal Quarter development site have taken a further step forward, with measures announced to address parking concerns.
Lying to the east of the city centre and bounded by Lancaster Canal, regeneration of the Canal Quarter area is considered critical to enhancing Lancaster’s role as a commercial and cultural centre. Land and buildings within the 6.5 ha area will be redeveloped for a mix of uses, including housing, commercial, enhanced cultural and leisure opportunities that will complement the wider centre and provide for sustainable and balanced place-making.
The Council has long held ambitions to develop the Canal Quarter, with a masterplan for the area setting out how the derelict and underused site will be transformed into a vibrant new neighbourhood.
The first of the sites to be made available, the Nelson Street car park, is now set to be redeveloped with South Lakes Housing and Blackpool-based Tyson Construction given exclusive rights to draw up proposals for a new affordable housing and mixed tenure development.
The project has been developed with the support of the Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF2) from the One Public Estate programme, which supports locally-led partnerships of public sector bodies to collaborate around their public service delivery strategies and estate needs.
But with it likely to be at least a year before the development gets underway and the car park closes, motorists and businesses have been reassured that temporary and long-term measures will be in place to make up for any loss of parking spaces.
Work is already underway to increase the available spaces on other car parks and the Castle car park is also set to reopen in April 2026, providing a boost to the city’s parking spaces.
More extensive parking on Kingsway is also being explored, which would provide overspill capacity and extra spaces for busy times such as when festivals and events are taking place.
By April 2026, despite losing Nelson Street, it’s planned that the total number of spaces will increase to 1,554, rising to 1,654 with Kingsway. This exceeds the current availability of 1,329.
In the long-term, the potential for multi storey car parking or the use of decking to increase the capacity of current car parks in the city is also being investigated.
Councillor Caroline Jackson, leader of Lancaster City Council and portfolio holder for housing, said: “The development of the Nelson Street car park will make an important contribution to the supply of new housing within the city centre, including the provision of affordable homes.
“We’ve listened to the city’s businesses and understand their concerns over the loss of these valuable car parking spaces.
“That’s why, by the time the car park has to close for development, we will have measures in place that should lead to an overall net increase across the city compared to what we have currently.”
The council is also looking to introduce a new car park vehicle counting system to make it easier for motorists to find a space at busy times.
This system will provide motorists with real time occupancy data, meaning they will be able to see where there is capacity available. It is currently out to procurement with a view to being installed later this year.
The development of 49 affordable homes is set to be built by South Lakes Housing to help meet the urgent need for affordable housing throughout the area.
South Lakes Housing is an independent, not-for-profit housing association and has previously worked with the city council on the award-winning Lune Walk development at Halton.