Mother of high profile Lib Dem Brian Paddick speaks out against car park plans (From Sutton Guardian)

Sutton centre car park plans criticised by former mayoral candidate's mother

6:00pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in News By James Pepper

Plans to sell off a town centre car park have come up against high-profile oppostion - in the shape of a 93-year-old woman.

Evelyn Paddick, mother of former Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate and top Met cop Brian Paddick, has spoken out about the proposals to demolish the Brighton Road car park to allow a new office block to be built.

The 93-year-old lives at Raeburn House, which would be in the shadow of the new development were bidders Subsea7 to be successful in getting planning permission.

The application involves levelling the 630-space car park and replacing it with a high-rise office block.

Mrs Paddick, who has lived in her central Sutton flat since 2001, said the new office block would plunge her flat into darkness.

The former shorthand typist said: "I don't like the idea one bit. It would take a lot of light from my flat and it wouldn't be very nice for all the people who live here. There are plenty of empty offices elsewhere in the borough, why can't this company have one of those? It's ridiculous. All this council does is waste money, what with the wooden animals in town, it's crazy."

Draft proposals from the engineering company are due to be submitted to the council this month, but the proposals have already been met with opposition since being announced last month.

Subsea7 say plans to build a state of the art office block on the site plans will create hundreds of new jobs. The company has around three hundred people based at nearby Quadrant House but would move the staff to the new office when it was built.