AMESBURY Town Council is calling for the retention of its one hour of free parking after consulting with local businesses and listening to the views of local people.

They are worried that the loss of the free parking could lead to business in the town centre being further eroded by customers going to larger out of town stores.

Town councillor Andrew Williams said if Wiltshire Council listened to the views of the people in Amesbury they could end up with increased |revenue from parking.

“Free parking is very close to the heart of people in Amesbury,” he said. “It will be damming if they don’t take our views into consideration.

“Customers like to pop in to a shop for convenience and without the free parking they will go to out of town shops. We need a level playing field with the supermarkets.

“Amesbury does not have the pull of larger cities such as Salisbury and therefore our parking issues are very |different. We just want to retain the free parking that we have currently got.”

Amesbury won 30 free one hour car parking spaces in the last consultation conducted by Wiltshire Council, which are now under threat.

The town council also proposed that on-street parking along Salisbury Street and High Street should be reduced to 30 minutes and noted that Wiltshire Council should take into account the parking |problems in surrounding |residential areas.

Wiltshire Council has also said that it wants to explore “other uses” for the Church Street Car Park which includes it being used by a different Wiltshire Council service.

It currently provides 41 spaces but is only at 30 per cent |capacity according to council data.

Yet the town council argues that the car park must be retained and if it is withdrawn there will be insufficient parking in Amesbury.

Additionally, the council is asking for improvements to the toilets in central car park which they feel have fallen into disrepair and “hinder our efforts to regenerate the town centre”.