Skipton traders say it's business as usual as work starts on car park (From Craven Herald)

Skipton traders say it's business as usual as work starts on car park

9:00am Friday 11th January 2013 in News By Clive White, Senior Reporter

Traders are saying it will be business as usual as the £900,000 project to tackle flooding in homes near Skipton’s Coach Street car park gets under way.

They want to quash fears that parking will be drastically reduced during the work to minimise the chances of sewer problems in 13 properties.

Richard Mashiter, who runs Craven Stationery in Coach Street, says only about a sixth of the parking space in the whole of the Coach Street area will be hit by the six-month long project which is being undertaken by Yorkshire Water.

The work is taking place in the top car park, leaving Spindle Mill untouched.

Mr Mashiter said: “Reports that half of Coach Street car park will be closed are misleading. The works will only use half of the top car park, adjacent to Gargrave Road.

“The Coach Street car park next to the canal basin and the Coach Street extension car park are both fully open and not affected.

“The only minor inconvenience is that the slip road off Gargrave Road into the top car park will be temporarily closed.

“Motorists coming from the Gargrave or Grassington directions will need to go down High Street and approach from the Swadford Street end.

“This closure will only last until the start of the tourist season.”

Steven Riley, boss of Skipton Camera Centre, claimed the matter had been blown out of all proportion.

“There is no panic. Most of the car park is open and people can still get round. They just have to follow the signage.”

A Yorkshire Water spokeswoman said: “We’re not working in both sections of Coach Street car park – our project is in the Gargrave Road section.

“Also, the work will be split into multiple phases designed so that we take up as little space as possible with a project this size.

“The whole of Coach Street car park has a capacity of 413 spaces and 164 of these are in the Gargrave Road section.

“ In the worst instance, our work will reduce the capacity of the car park by 74 spaces but this won’t be for the duration of the project.”

All vehicles needing access to Coach Street car park and Spindle Mill are being diverted along the High Street and Swadford Street.

The work involves installing a tank beneath Coach Street car park capable of holding 1,200,000 litres of storm water during wet weather.

It will be held in the tank until the water levels fall and it can be released safely back into the sewer network.