£10m revamp of town could mean fewer parking places

Work is due to begin shortly on the first phase of the Barnard Castle Historic Town Centre Project.

Although it broadly supported the scheme, Barnard Castle Town Council has expressed concern that the town could lose much-needed parking spaces.

The first phase of the scheme will cost £300,000 and involves replacing concrete paving with high-quality Yorkstone on the bottom end of Galgate.

Tarmac parking bays will be replaced with granite, and the entrances to the castle and tourist information centre will also be improved as part of the scheme.

Other phases planned for the development include work on the cobbled area of the market place.

There will also be improvements to the market cross and the area around St Mary's Church.

The long-stay Hole in the Wall car park could also be resurfaced and a new entrance way from Newgate constructed, which could take the form of two houses with an archway between them.

David McKnight, the programme manager for the Teesdale Market Towns Initiative, said the different phases of the revamp would take place over several years and could end up costing more than £10m.

He said similar schemes in Bury and Halifax had a very positive effect on the towns and, although there were going to be a few parking spaces lost, they would be minimal.

Town Councillor Eric Fell said the town had already lost car parking spaces on Galgate and, if the Hole in the Wall car park was resurfaced, it was likely the district council would levy a charge, which would mean there would be even less free car parking in the town.

He said: "It is all very well to say the loss will be minimal, but we can't keep on minimising the car parking in the town

"What are we going to do to compensate for this?

"This works in Bury and Halifax but they have very light town centre traffic as they have been bypassed."

Mr McKnight said the marked-out parking bays would encourage proper parking and the benefits to the town would outweigh any loss of parking.