A top councillor has refused to rule out selling off council-owned car parks.
Councillor Paul Hewett, executive member for property, projects and procurement at Breckland, was speaking at the district's full council meeting on July 13.
He was asked by Labour councillor Harry Clarke if he could rule out any intention to sell the Cherry Tree or any other car parks in Dereham, either as a whole or in part, for residential development.
Mr Hewett said: “I can confirm there is no decision or predetermination to move away from the current model that we operate in, but at the same time, neither is there going to be a binary or a sound bite or a political troupe that just says we will do X or Y.
“The critical point here comes out from the survey and what the survey data says.
“The data might say, we've got too many car parks in one place, that data might suggest that some of our car parks can't be found."
A survey has seen the temporary installation of number plate recognition cameras at the entrances and exits of the 32 council-owned car parks across Breckland.
The survey started in late June and was due to last four to six weeks.
The cameras will gather information about which car parks are most used, and identify the peak times of demand and typical parking durations. But the council says it is not collecting the details of drivers or where cars are registered.
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Mr Hewett said: “The data might suggest some vehicles in some of our town centre car parks are parked for very long periods of time or are parked in the town centre car parks in the morning in order to carry on additional transports to move into Norwich or various other things like that.
“Any solution will involve consultation with our towns, consultation with our residents, and consultation with our businesses.”
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