A SOLUTION to the shortage of parking in Wotton could be just around the corner, if proposals to change car park times go ahead.

At an open meeting at the Civic Centre last Saturday, Wotton Town Council put forward a plan to restrict parking at The Chipping car park to three hours and residents were asked for their opinions on the changes.

"There was a good crowd of people and lots of them filled in questionnaires," said town clerk Glenys Syles, "but we haven’t had chance to analyse all the responses yet.

"The key is to try to make what we’ve got more effective, rather than make drastic changes.

"Half of the Chipping car park is currently limited to three hours and the proposal is to extend that to the whole of the car park between the hours of 9am and 6pm, so that people could still get to the arts centre and cinema out of hours.

"We have no magic wand and this is not a quick fix, but we need to balance the needs of residents, businesses and shoppers.

"We are working closely with the district council and the Chamber of Trade, but we do not want to shift problems elsewhere.

"If the public support this measure and it goes ahead, we would review the situation again in a year."

There will be another meeting at the Civic Centre on Friday between 6pm and 8pm, when it is hoped that more members of the public and traders in particular will be able to come along and express their point of view.