SHUTTLE buses and an underground multi-storey car park could provide the answer to parking problems in Cirencester town centre, according to a Cirencester travel firm chairman.

Nick Laing said that Steppes Travel staff and other business in the town centre often struggle to park Old Station and Sheep Street car parks as they cannot cope with demand.

He said the district council could fix the problem by building an underground multi-storey car park or setting up a shuttle service that would ferry people from the larger car parks on the outskirts of Cirencester town centre.

He said: “I do believe that the only option is to build a multi-storey car park here. It would be an eyesore but one could be built underground just like the ones they have in London. If it went down rather than up then it wouldn’t be such an eyesore.

“A multi-storey should probably be by the Old Station Road car park or one of the existing car parks “A shuttle service could be set up for people who work in the town all day.”

He said the 149 space Old Station Car Park and 77 space Sheep Street car park are often full around 9am.

He explained that the district council is not doing enough to improve parking in the town and the result of his staff not being able to park could mean his business, which is based on Castle Street, has to leave town or relocate to the outskirts of it.

He said: “If you manage to obtain a space, but need to drive to a meeting, there are no spaces on return. A business cannot continue on that basis. Time, as we all know these days is money.”

He added that recently the parking situation has got worse due to workers from Cirencester firm St James’s Place parking in the car parks due to their own car park being closed for construction.

Chris Hancock, cabinet member for Enterprise and Partnerships at Cotswold District Council said that the council was working to come up with solutions to the increase in demand.

He said that to help ease parking problems at the car park the council permitted season tickets for either the Old Station or Sheep Street car parks to use the Waterloo car park in the town from January this year.

He added that the council will be reviewing a range of options to expand parking capacity both in the short and longer term and that Mr Laing’s suggestions have been noted and will be considered.