A BURNLEY car park which caused parking chaos to motorists in the town when it closed to the public without notice was open as usual today

Yesterday the Centenary Way car park was closed to the public as two traffic wardens manned its entrance.

Signs were on display saying it would be closed until Friday and motorists, at short notice, had to find an alternative site to leave their vehicles.

But today the signs had disappeared and motorists were allowed to park on the land.

Today Burnley Council, which owns the 112 space site, said it was closed because of an agreement between the authority and Burnley College to give students priority to use the car park.

The arrangement was made because of a previous deal the pair had which saw students having permits to use St Peter's Car Park - which is now being demolished - and the introduction of residents-only parking scheme around the campus.

However, the college contacted council officials yesterday morning saying they did not need to take up the one-week agreement.

There is a shortfall of spaces in the town due to the current demolition of St Peter's car park and the reintroduction of traffic wardens in September. In a bid to alleviate the problems, Burnley Council created an extra 250 spaces at the former Pioneer site car park, off Curzon Street, to replace the 350 spaces at St Peter's.

A spokesman for Burnley Borough Council said there was still sufficient car parking in Burnley.

He said: "We had a request from the college that we make spaces at Centenary Way available to their contract holders.

"Initially this was going to be for one week but yesterday the college contacted the council saying they did not need it for a week.

"The car park was open to the public from yesterday afternoon and is back to its normal use."