CAR parking in a town centre is to come under scrutiny, but charging is unlikely to be introduced.

A report on the current situation with options for the future will be considered by Rossendale's engineering and planning committee on Monday.

But chief engineer and planning officer Philip Cunliffe, is warning councillors that, while there are arguments for and against car park charges, the council has proved over the last eight years of disc parking that parking can be free and still generate a reasonable turnover of cars.

Rawtenstall shopkeepers asked the council to look at car parking at the last meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. The traders are concerned that commuters are hogging long-stay spaces early in the morning and catching the bus to Manchester. They would also like to see the present two-hour limit in disc-controlled spaces scrutinised.

Now, with the improvements to the main shopping street nearing completion and extra car parking spaces attached to plans to build more shops and a superstore, Mr Cunliffe believes the time is right to review the council's whole car parking policy.

He is recommending that the public who use the town centre car parks should be given the chance to have their say before any changes are made.

A questionnaire inserted in local papers and attached to parked cars, followed by a public forum meeting, is being suggested as a way of finding out how shoppers, office workers and business people feel about the issue.

The town currently has 392 off-street parking spaces, with 127 disc-controlled, and 200 on-street spaces, of which 75 are limited to either 20 minutes or an hour.

Options being considered by councillors include making all off-street spaces disc-controlled, varying the length of time allowed and increasing the number of parking spaces.

The report adds: "Current planning policies suggest that more emphasis should be placed upon integrated transport systems. Conversely, car park demand continues to rise, well beyond the level of land available to satisfy demand."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.