THE city council plans to flog part of one of the city centre’s busiest car parks to help a restaurant build an extension.

Italian restaurant Benedicto’s in Sidbury, Worcester, wants to buy a chunk of land at the neighbouring King Street car park to build a two-storey extension.

The council said it would be willing to sell the land but only if it was compensated for the loss of income “as a minimum".

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If approved, the year-long work at the listed building would add up to 70 more covers as part of an extension to the restaurant’s kitchen, dining area, and bar and café.

Just over one hundred square metres of the 108-bay car park would be sold to make way for the expansion at a loss of two spaces.

A total of 18 spaces would be shut for the whole year during the work and another six spaces would be lost for at least a month when the payment machines are moved.

The council plans to install more electric car charging points across the city, including for up to 10 cars at King Street car park, which would result in the permanent loss of a further four spaces.

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The city council included King Street car park as a potential site for housing or offices in its 2019 ‘masterplan’ as part of a southern ‘gateway’ to the city centre with “retained parking provision.”

The city council is planning to raise charges at car parks in Worcester for the first time in 14 years in plans that will be voted on by councillors at the end of the month.

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The move was criticised by Tory council leader Chris Mitchell who said the upcoming 12 months was the wrong time to hike prices.

The leader said it was wrong to raise parking charges – which have not changed since 2009 – during a cost-of-living crisis and especially after last year’s card payment cock-up which saw thousands of drivers needlessly charged several times for parking in the city.

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The owners of Benedicto’s would still need to apply for planning permission before the extension could be built and the transfer of land would not be signed until planners had given the work the green light.

The sale will be discussed by the city council’s policy and resources committee at a meeting in the Guildhall on February 7.