Horley High Street Car Park to Be Sold on Open Market

Horley’s High Street car park is to be put on the open market and sold to the highest compliant bidder. Reigate and Banstead Borough Council’s Executive chose that route on 24 September. The council’s own officers had recommended against it.

The decision record, published on 28 September, lists the choice as “Option 1: Conditional Open Market Sale”. The disused former café at 54 High Street, next to the car park and the pedestrian subway, goes into the same sale site.

Nothing is sold yet and the car park stays open. But this is the first firm answer on which way the council wants to go with Horley, after we reported the three options the night the Executive met.

What officers advised

The Executive report set out three options for the Horley site. Here is how officers rated them:

Option 1 was the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Assets’ preferred choice, the report says. Officers did not recommend it because it “does not provide the Council with the control or certainty that it is seeking for the delivery of new affordable and social rent homes.”

The trade-off, in the council’s own words

The report lists the strengths of an open market sale:

• it brings in a capital receipt the council can reinvest
• it is a straightforward process, advertised widely
• the sale can be made conditional on planning permission, with long-stop dates
• the planning risk and the design and building costs pass to the buyer

It lists the weaknesses too:

• the council “relinquishes control of the Site” and has little influence beyond the planning process
• it cannot dictate what gets built, except through planning
• there is “limited certainty” that affordable or social rent homes will go beyond the planning policy minimum
• without long-stop dates and a sale subject to planning, a buyer could keep running it as a car park or land-bank it
• the car park’s income is lost for good

The site is allocated in the 2019 local plan, policy HOR1, for about 40 homes and up to 1,000 square metres of shops or leisure.

What the car park earns now

The report gives these figures for the 0.28 hectare site:

• 86 parking spaces
• £67,300 in parking income in 2025/26, from almost 38,000 transactions, not counting season tickets
• £232,000 existing use value as a car park
• £2,250 a year from advertising hoardings round the edge

Any buyer would also need Network Rail’s approval to build, because the title requires it, and would have to keep access to the railway.

What happens to Redhill

The Executive agreed the officers’ recommendation for Gloucester Road car park in Redhill. External advisers will study the options there, with the priority on homes the council builds and keeps for affordable and social rent. That site is not going straight to market.

What it means for you

• Nothing changes yet. The High Street car park stays open, and the free first hour at Horley’s council car parks still applies.
• There will be a public consultation before the council can declare the car park surplus. The decision record makes any sale subject to the business case and “the outcomes of any requisite public consultations”.
• Advisers come first. The Head of Property can now appoint external advisers to prepare marketing material and run a conditional marketing exercise.
• The final say is not this council’s alone. A formal decision to sell must come back to the Executive. It also needs approval from East Surrey Council, the new unitary authority, which takes over on 1 April 2027.
• Parents take note. The report says three local schools use the car park for drop-off and pick-up on weekdays. It says an assessment of town-centre parking will inform what happens to those spaces.

If you use the car park, the consultation is your chance to say so. We will report it when it opens. Horley’s other council car parks are Central (163 spaces) and Victoria Road (200), the council says. Our parking guide covers the rest of the borough.