AMESBURY is set to get a new pay and display car park.

Private development company Leisure Activity has been granted permission by Wiltshire Council to turn the town’s bus station, which is soon to be vacated, into a car park with room for 33 cars, motorcycle bays and a ticket machine.

Those opposed to the plans said the town centre site could be better utilised to bring more businesses to Amesbury or it should remain as a bus station.

However, Wilts & Dorset bus company has already decided to sell the site and will be using new bus pullins that have been built on the A345.

Amesbury Town Council wanted Wiltshire Council’s southern area planning committee to grant only temporary permission for the car park as a “stopgap”

but planners said that turning it into a car park now would not prevent it from being used for retail purposes in the future, if a developer came forward.

The committee also heard that by turning the land into a managed car park, the site would be prevented from becoming derelict and an eyesore.

No major concerns were raised about access or the impact on public transport and councillors agreed turning Amesbury bus station into a pay and display car park was “an appropriate and effective use of the site”.