Village green car park plan

Whalley residents turned out in force at a meeting to discuss car parking problems in the centre of the village.

The matter was top of the agenda at the meeting of Whalley Parish Council attended by about 50 residents and traders.

It was told that Vale Gardens in the village centre could be turned into a car park.

Parking in Whalley was thrown into chaos when Whitbread banned motorists from its pub car park last month.

Shoppers and visitors to the doctors, dentist and adult education centre used the Whalley Arms car park, but brewery bosses claimed people were parking all day and causing inconvenience to pub staff and customers.

They were fed-up with motorists using the site as an all-day car park and wanted to reserve it for pub customers.

Brewery bosses then introduced a pay-and-display scheme at the site to help solve the problem.

But they still called on parish and borough councillors to come up with a municipal site.

Chairman Eric Ronnan said the meeting was divided over a proposal that Vale Gardens could be turned into a car park.

"Car parking has become a major issue in the village and the parish council is going to consider the use of Vale Gardens for some car-parking. We would be concerned about safety issues and the loss of open space, but we have been asked to consider it and we will.

"I would like to stress that we are only considering the proposal and our decision will be reached in due coure following appropriate research and discussion," he said after the meeting.

Ribble Valley Council chief engneer Graham Jagger said strenuous efforts were being made to solve the problem.

"The real hard work has begun, but we can only make progress with the support of the village in general. We will be working hard to find a site and working closely with the parish council to undertake a feasibility study into the possible use of Vale Gardens."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.