SHOPPERS are invited to make the most of two months' free car parking in the new Union Arcade in Bury.

The first two floors of the multi-storey park opened yesterday with 220 spaces.

Opening at 9.30am, parking will be free until December 9 when the whole of the 600-space four-storey park is ready.

Developers MEPC are still negotiating with council planners over what prices to charge.

One change will be in the banding system, with the current minimum one-hour tariff replaced by a longer period to encourage people to spend more time in the shops.

Mr Leslie Gleghorn, Mill Gate manager, said: "We want it to be a real shoppers' car park, with bays for disabled drivers and extra-wide ones for people with children's buggies.

"It's a very bright, attractive and modern asset to the town and no longer a dark, dingy thing of the Sixties."

Once completed, the park will open at around 7.30am and close at 6.30pm.

Security guards, who will be on duty day and night, will ensure that nobody gets locked in and the park is covered by closed circuit TV cameras.

Drivers will find a new "pay on foot" system, as opposed to pay and display.

Motorists will take a ticket as they drive in. Once their shopping is done, they insert the ticket in a machine to see how much they owe, pay the charge, and are then allowed to leave.

Mr Gleghorn decline to say exactly what MEPC was hoping to charge, but said prices would remain the lowest in Greater Manchester.

As the new leaseholders, the developers will operate the park, collect the money and give an undisclosed percentage to the local authority.

Parking on Sundays, but only when Mill Gate is open in the run-up to Christmas, will be free.

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