TWO-year temporary plans to double the size of the coach park at Stonehenge were given the goahead on Thursday despite fears it may end up becoming permanent.

The coach park currently has 30 coach bays but will soon have an extra 26 spaces and a ten-metre wide pedestrian walkway - to accommodate groups of parties passing each other.

English Heritage submitted the application in order to "better manage" the existing numbers of visitors.

Stonehenge general manager Kate Davies told the Southern Area Planning Committee that the extra provision would help improve the current situation which sees some coach drivers missing their timed arrival slots and 'flyparking' in neighbouring villages while waiting to pick up passengers.

She said: "For the 2014/2015 year our visitor numbers were 1.34m and we expect numbers will be between 1.3m and 1.4m over the next few years.

"Sixty percent of our paying visitors are now travelling to Stonehenge as part of a group and this has created a number of challenges."

Councillors voted in favour of the coach park extension by seven to three, with one abstention.

Those against the plans said they feared the number of coaches coming to Stonehenge would increase and lead to further traffic problems for local villages.

They also questioned the lack of information from English Heritage on what would happen in two years' time.

Voting against the application, councillor Chris Devine said: "It [Stonehenge] has been disastrously mismanaged to the detriment of the people who live here," adding "there's more to Salisbury Plain than a group of stones. People live here, people work here."

But committee chairman cllr Fred Westmoreland said: "If we want to encourage more people to come by coach,which reduces the number of wheels on the road, then we have to make room for the coaches.

"I haven't got much confidence in English Heritage getting everything right but on this they have got it absolutely right.

"If we were to turn this parking down, it would be crazy."

English Heritage, which plans to use gravel infill hopes to have the extension in place by the summer holidays.

Gravel infill will be used as a resurfacing material.