Almost 100 extra parking spots in Chorley have been completed ready in time for weekend's Chorley Christmas Lights Switch-On

The Friday Street car park in Chorley has reopened providing almost 100 new parking spots in time for this evening’s Christmas lights switch-on in the centre of the town.

A total of 96 new spaces have been constructed at the car park, taking the on-site total from 220 to 316.

The majority are wider than the average space, something Chorley Council says is down to listening to public opinion.

It is the last of the new car parks to open ahead of the construction of the £12 million Market Walk shopping centre extension which will bring a six-screen cinema and M&S Foodhall to Chorley.

Chorley Coun Alistair Bradley, leader of Chorley Council, said: “We’ve done lots of work to improve the car parking for visitors and opening these new spaces will help attract shoppers ahead of the busy Christmas period. With Portland Street and Friday Street car parks next to each other we have more than 400 spaces a very short walk from the main shopping areas offering three hours of free parking.”

A new ‘super crossing’ is also being created in the town centre to help make it easier for visitors to get to shops from the Friday Street car park.

The opening of the extension, which is the first multi-storey car park in Chorley, comes as 34 free spaces have been created in Park Road to help boost Christmas trade for businesses.

Malcolm Allen, chair of the Chorley Traders’ Alliance, said: “We’re really happy that this work has been done and the more we can do to make it easy for people to park in Chorley the better.”