A campaign to save Crown Court car park in Godalming has presented a petition with more than 4,000 signatures to Waverley Borough Council.

Plans to redevelop the car park were put to a public consultation over the summer as the borough council considers the future of its office buildings at The Burys, Godalming, and looks at plans for new homes in the town.

A regeneration project will look at three council-owned sites in the town, The Burys office building, Crown Court car park and the Wharf Car Park.

Plans could include a multi-storey car park and council offices on The Burys site, with housing on the Wharf and Crown Court sites, though with around a third of the parking kept at the Crown Court site.

A petition was brought to Waverley Borough Council’s meeting on Tuesday December 13, presented by Daniel Husseini on behalf of former Conservative Godalming town councillor Anne Gray.

The Save Crown Court Action Group-organised petition had 4,044 signatures from users of the car park, opposing the building of houses on the site and the building of a multi-storey car park on either the Crown Court or The Burys site.

Mr Husseini said the car park was often full, was easy to use and was close to the town’s shops, parish church, businesses and more.

He added: “A multi-storey car park at the Waverley Borough Council site is inappropriate for Godalming and much less easy and convenient to use.”

The council will review the petition according to its processes and contact the organisers to update them.

Nearly 1,000 people responded to the council’s consultation on the plans which ran from August to October.

A presentation on the results, brought to the council’s executive in November, said: “It is clear from the free text comments and discussions with individuals at the engagement events, that the high level of opposition to the entire scheme is largely due to desire for retention of parking on Crown Court.”

It said replacement car parking at The Burys would need to be “sensitively designed” and other car parking options better promoted.

The document also clarified that the borough council did not plan to sell any of the sites to a private developer, that there would be no development on the Burys Field and that Crown Court car park would not be turned into a “big housing estate”.