Statement by CCCPT for The Town Council Meeting on 18th June 2026

By far the biggest income stream that maintains the country park comes from its car park.

There will be a new development built by Denbury Homes, opposite their existing development in Cavendish Road. Historic planning regarding this site has inserted a requirement for the provision of a car park as part of this new development. This car park, if built, would be close to the entrance to the Country Park along the Railway Walk and it is inevitable that CCCPT would suffer some loss of income as some people travelling to the park from the direction of Cavendish will park in that car park. Income from that car park will go to private enterprise outside of Clare and it will not serve the town centre at all.

There are significant funds earmarked at West Suffolk Council for development of a Town Centre Car Park in Clare to relieve the parking problems at busy times. The Social Club site has for some time been considered the only potentially viable town centre site for such a car park. These funds are likely to be lost if no action is taken in the immediate future, as the structure of local government is changing and West Suffolk will cease to exist by 2028.

In addition, Denbury Homes have agreed that, should plans for a Town Centre Car Park be sufficiently advanced by 31 January 2027 to satisfy West Suffolk Planning Authority, they will give further funding towards the project instead of building the out-of-town car park near the park entrance.

The Social Club building is a temporary prefabricated building dating back 79 years and CCCPT is concerned that it is not sustainable in the medium to longer term. Therefore, in the future, the trust considers that is likely it will have to deal with its ultimate removal and relandscaping of the area that it occupies. The likely cost of this would be in the tens of thousands of pounds.

Therefore, potential exists to protect CCCPT income through car parking, provide a valuable short stay parking facility for the town centre and its businesses, and avoid a future liability in terms of the inevitable demise of the prefabricated structure.

This is a unique opportunity, due to the funding options and will not be available in the future.

No. At this stage there is a lot of work to be done to ascertain whether changing the use will satisfy planning regulations and, even then, a business case will need to be established as to the viability and cost effectiveness of the potential car park. The planning process has begun, and West Suffolk Council is funding consultants to carry out initial work.

During the planning process, the consultants will speak with interested parties. If these discussions, or any other material planning considerations, indicate a low likelihood of planning consent being granted or the viability of the project, their work will be halted.

If we proceed and make a full planning application, the planning authority will apply all the normal rigorous checks and take account of any objections that may be raised, as with any other planning application. This will be the opportunity to raise concerns to the appropriate authority. If the planning authority ultimately agrees that Clare would be better served by continuing with the Social Club building at the site, rather than a car park, then planning permission will not be granted.

If planning is passed then CCCPT and West Suffolk Council will need to review the business case, which will include a parking survey to confirm the need for more parking. At that point, if West Suffolk is prepared to release funding to complete the work, the trust will need to decide whether it believes that its aims and the town overall would be best served by proceeding with the work.

Only then would CCCPT consider giving notice to the Social Club to vacate. Under the terms of the latest lease offered to the Social Club, this would mean the earliest that the Social Club might close would be the second half of 2027.

If at any point it is shown that the option of a car park on the site is not viable, then the offered lease would allow the Social Club to remain open for the foreseeable future.

Informal discussions have taken place throughout with the Town Council and the Social Club in respect of alternative accommodation at the pavilion. Until recently the Social Club had been adamant that they would not wish to operate from the pavilion. However, we now understand that they have opened discussions with the Town Council regarding how it could be improved to meet their needs and this option will be formally considered this evening by the council.

This is an unknown at present. It is unfortunate that the pavilion part of the project is not further forward, as the Social Club and the Town Council have only just engaged in this respect.

Clearly this would be the most satisfactory situation. However, there are time pressures in terms of the planning process, as a viable scheme for the car park needs to be established by 31 January 2027 in order to avoid the competing car park being built and the loss of the developers’ contribution to the scheme. West Suffolk, either the planning authority or the fundholders, may also set deadlines. The trust’s view is that it would not be sensible to jeopardise funding by waiting for works to completed at the pavilion. Nonetheless, the trust will do anything it reasonably can to delay any works, if this can be done without risk to the funding sources.

The trust recognises the importance of the various events held at the Social Club. However, equally Clare is blessed with many other buildings for hire. On a temporary basis, if there were a time gap, it is likely that almost all the events could be well accommodated in other venues.

For example, the Town Hall and The Old Goods Shed are licenced and a bar can be run for quiz nights, bingo evenings and occasional music nights, keep fit classes could be operated from a number of other Clare buildings and it is hoped that local pubs could support the darts team or again the Town Hall that hosted the successful Clare Open Darts Tournament could provide a home.