A council has put a town centre car park on the market for redevelopment.

The plot, in Mount Pleasant Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, has been deemed “surplus to requirements,” as it was barely used.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (TWBC) is marketing the 60-space car park, while the Grade II-listed office building next to it is being sold by the owners, AXA.

The insurance firm had been leasing the car park near its offices from TWBC, but with the council now set to dispose of it, the council is transferring its lease of 60 spaces to the Crescent Road Car Park.

At a meeting of TWBC’s cabinet on October 26, the authority voted to give the final go-ahead for the sale provided they get good value for it.

“We now have an opportunity to look at the disposal of Mount Pleasant car park, a car park that was principally used by AXA for employees Monday to Saturday when they occupied the office buildings on Crescent Road until early July this year,” cabinet member Chris Hall (Lib Dem) said at the meeting.

“As the site of the office and its adjacent car park are now vacant it's an opportune moment to review that and to potentially realise the value of the car park which is owned by the council,” he added.

An officer explained to members that the car park was only open to the public at weekends, and “public usage only accounted for 4% of total utilisation of that car park.”

The car park sits close to the town’s Calverley Gardens park, and just off the key shopping area of Mount Pleasant Road.

At a previous meeting of the council’s finance and governance cabinet advisory board on October 10, an officer stressed to members that the sale “will provide a substantial capital receipt for the council.”

Another officer added that there has been one “firm offer” for the site, and “there’s a lot of interest expressed.”

Council officers also explained that, with AXA flogging their offices for redevelopment “this is adjacent to a major development site itself which could alter the price that could be achieved at this point in time.”

At that meeting, Cllr Lance Goodship (Con) urged the cabinet to delay the move until a car parking strategy for the town was complete.

Speaking after the meeting, he told KentOnline “It was clear from the officers’ statements that the Axa building and car park are likely to be sold to a developer to build flats, which is why they want to include the car park in with the building sale.”

The Rightmove listings for both the Grade II-listed office and the car park say prices are only given on application.

In the Lambert Smith Hampton brochure for the car park, they describe it as having “excellent redevelopment prospects.”

In the same firm’s listing for the office, they refer to the “exciting redevelopment opportunity of a Decimus Burton building”, in reference to the famed architect who designed many properties in the town.

The sale of the historic office building also includes the 30-space car park.

Only a few hundred yards away from the Mount Pleasant car park, planning permission was given for a seven-storey retirement complex.