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More town centre parking needed to help area thrive By Samantha McGregor WITNEY town centre could get a second multi-storey car park to help cope with thousands of new homes. According to the local plan, 15,950 homes could be built in Witney and the surrounding area, and in order to maintain the vibrancy of the town, extra parking is needed for shoppers. West Oxfordshire District Council says by 2031 a further 600 spaces will be needed in Witney. Cllr Duncan Enright, leader of the opposition, said: “It’s clear Witney is a significant service centre for miles around. We need to provide extra parking for shoppers and more parking dedicated to serving the town centre. “Obviously a way to tackle it would be a multi-storey. We have a history of success – if you look very carefully at what we did for Marriott Close, the shops, flats and successful hidden multi-storey.” He said the town must “avoid” citystyle concrete buildings, and any multistorey should fit with Witney being a “Cotswold market town”. Mr Enright suggested the multi-storey car park could be built in Woodfield Way on the current Waitrose car park, but should not “create traffic issues” or “blight” residents or shops. He said ideally any new car park
should be funded by a developer as part of a project in the town. The council’s parking strategy report said forecasted growth in the town by 2031 “will push many car parks to or over capacity”. It also said: “The total occupancy across all car parks would reach 99 per cent on weekdays and 112 per cent on Saturday. “It is a similar situation with regards to on-street parking, where there are likely to be little or no vacant parking spaces by 2031.” In a cabinet meeting last month, a report said a decked carpark for 600 vehicles – 200 on each floor - would cost in the region of £7.8m, the equivalent of £13,000 per space to build. During the meeting the cabinet agreed to adopt the strategic approach to parking capacity, which includes meeting future demand for spaces. It said 120 more car parking spaces would be needed in Chipping Norton, 150 in Woodstock and 200 in Burford. Cllr James Mills, council leader, was unavailable to comment. Oxfordshire County Council is in the process of developing a park and ride strategy for the A40 corridor. A park and ride is planned for Eynsham with a possibility it could be used as a park and ride into Witney as well and cut the need for parking in Witney town centre.
PUDSEY and fire and rescue crews were out and about raising money to help children last week. Crews from Woodstock visited
the picturesque Blenheim Palace, while Bampton staff toured their quaint town centre, to raise a total of £9,820 for Children in Need.
Crews all across Oxfordshire joined in collecting money in their towns and villages, raising more than £22,000 overall.
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