Plans for new decked car park in Chorley could see 96 more spaces

Proposals, submitted by Chorley Council, would see an extra 96 parking bays at Friday Street car park.

The authority has been working on the design for a number of weeks as part of its plans to increase the number of parking spaces in the town centre ahead of work starting on the Market Walk extension.

Councillor Alistair Bradley, leader of the council, said: “When we committed to building the Market Walk extension earlier this year we said we would get the additional parking in place first and a key part of this has been putting plans together for the extra level on Friday Street.

“We’ve taken feedback on board from residents and traders and have compromised on the number of extra spaces to create wider parking bays making it more appealing to shoppers.

“We know there is a perception that it is out of the town centre but it is actually closer to the new extension than many of the other car parks and we will be doing work to make that walk easier by improving things such as the crossing over the by-pass to make it more pedestrian friendly.”

The additional spaces planned is one of a number of schemes to create extra parking with demolition due to start on the Royal Oak site this week to make way for car parking.

There are currently about 190 parking bays at the site. Members of Chorley Trader’s Alliance are 100 per cent behind the proposals which they have spent years campaigning for.

Chairman Malcolm Allen, owner of Malcolm’s Musicland, said: “It’s excellent news. We have campaigned for an extra level on Friday Street car park for several years.

“We need increased footfall in Chorley and if we haven’t got somewhere for people to park we are not going to get that.

“We need to keep the market and we need car parking for footfall.

“The car parking has to come before we can build anything. It’s the only place in the town centre where we can get another level and its quite central to the town.”

A decision on whether the additional level will be given the green light is expected in June.