West Lancashire councillors are thrashing out ways to deal with some of the borough's worst parking spots in an effort to end misery for many of the region's motorists.

Last night (March 9, 2010) the borough council's Environmental Overview & Scrutiny Committee met to consider a report into some of the trickiest spots for residents to park up, and advocated using vacant council-owned land and garages in an attempt to allievate pressure on some of the worst-affected areas.

“The Environmental Overview and Scrutiny Committee at West Lancashire Borough Council carried out a review on Car Parking in West Lancashire the purpose of which was to consider the diverse parking problems experienced in the Borough particularly as it affects residential areas near to centres of employment and schools who do not have space available to accommodate vehicle parking,” said Up Holland borough councillor Terry Rice, the committee's chairman, in his foreward on the report into the parking problems.

“We started the scrutiny project in July 2010 and have learned much from our enquiries. In Autumn 2009 we surveyed our own Members through a questionnaire to hear their views on parking "hotspots" in their Wards. The evaluation of the results and our enquiries has assisted us to explore the issues of the review topic and inform the Committees recommendations.”

Several locations across the borough have been highlighted as being particularly bad in terms of parking, with Ormskirk having the most places which have been identified as being priorities for any work the council undertakes to ease pressure on car parking spaces.

The West Lancashire locations the committee considers as being its highest priorities in easing parking problems are:

Ormskirk, in the vicinity of Tower Hill

Ormskirk, in the vicinity of Edge Hill University and Ormskirk Hospital

Ormskirk, around the town centre

Sandy Lane Centre, Skelmersdale

Linacre Lane, Halsall

Burscough Village Centre

Aughton Town Green Lane Shops/Aughton Village Hall

Ormskirk, Burscough, Aughton, Appley Bridge and Up Holland railway stations

The council has already considered several solutions to problems with parking in the borough, including allowing vacant garages it owns to be used by residents to store vehicles, and allowing empty council-owned sites to be used as temporary extra car parks.

It also advocates working more closely with Lancashire County Council to improve the borough's public transport, particularly park and ride schemes, to lessen residents' reliance on their cars and reduce the number of them driving into towns such as Ormskirk and Skelmersdale.

The final reccomendations from last night's meeting will be considered by the council's cabinet when it meets at its next meeting, due to take place next Tuesday (March 16, 2010).

For more information read next week's Champion, due out on March 17, 2010.

By David Simister