A NEW town centre car park for Chorley shoppers could be built in Gillibrand Street if council planning chiefs give the scheme the green light.

A West Midlands company has submitted an application to build the 71-space pay and display parking area on the site of former discount store Grahams.

Traders in Chorley had feared a new traffic calming scheme, incorporating a series of speed humps in surrounding streets, could put off potential developers.

But Sutton Coldfield-based Pro-Mill Investments Ltd are now set to build the car park if councillors give the go-ahead at a Chorley Borough Council development control committee meeting on Wednesday, May 28. Town centre parking has been difficult since the Clifford Street car park was bulldozed to make way for the new travel interchange.

But this week there were mixed feelings about the application.

Jos Hampson, secretary of Chorley and District Chamber of Trade, said business owners were cheered by the news. "It's very welcome in view of the fact that we recently lost 163 parking spaces at Clifford Street," she said. "It will go some way to alleviating the parking situation in the town.

But ward councillor Ralph Snape said: "I don't think that end of the town centre needs another car park.

"The Fleet Street car park, which is very close to the proposed site, is never completely full so I just don't think there's a real need for it."