A borough councillor has sought to allay fears that Tunbridge Wells is about to lose five of its town centre car parks.

Cllr Nicholas Pope, the Tunbridge Wells Alliance member for Park Ward, said that he thought it "very unlikely that more than one car park would be sold within the next two years," despite the council declaring five car parks "surplus to requirements" in its recently published asset register.

Cllr Pope said: "That was poor and clumsy writing that gave the wrong impression.

"For a start, no car park could be sold in contradiction to our adopted parking strategy which still has three years to run."

Cllr Pope said he had been contacted by many concerned residents and businesses, worried that the town was about to have its parking provision slashed by up to 1,012 parking spaces.

The five car parks listed by the council as surplus are at Great Hall (205 spaces) adjacent to Calverley Gardens; Meadow Road (450 spaces), Torrington Car Park off Vale Avenue (243 spaces), Linden Park (54 spaces) and Mount Pleasant Avenue (60 spaces).

But Cllr Pope, who is chairman of the audit and governance committee, said: "I think the only car park that could be sold is Mount Pleasant Avenue. That is only open to the public at weekends, the rest of the week, it is used by Axa employees from their adjacent offices, but Axa has plans to move."

He said: "The Linden Park car park serves The Pantiles where there is a shortage of parking, so that could not go, and Meadow Road and Great Hall are also very well used.

"There are some complications around the ownership of the Torrington car park which would make it very difficult to sell."

Cllr Pope said: "People should understand this was just an annual review of the council's assets and doesn't mean an imminent loss of any car parks."

Tunbridge Wells council currently provides 3,500 parking spaces in the town centre, and around 4,500 across the borough.

The borough ran a month-long public consultation on its "asset management plan," including the disposal of the car parks and other assets like the Wesley Centre in Paddock Wood, which closed on February 9.

A spokesman for the council said: "No decision has been taken about the future of any of the car parks and decisions will be taken in tandem with a new parking strategy.

"We will review the responses to the consultation and then cabinet will decide what will be a priority – timescales and the broader parking strategy will emerge as part of this process.

"Sufficient car parking will be retained to meet the future needs of Royal Tunbridge Wells as part of this approach."