Plans to create formal car park in Wooler

Northumberland County Council is looking to turn a plot of land at riverside which people have parked on for a number of years into an official car park.

If the plans get the green light, the free car park will have a maximum stay of three hours.

Following the opening of Ad Gefrin, which is expected to attract at least 35,000 people this year, the council is concerned that those visitors will leave their cars at riverside all day.

As a result, local businesses would be affected as people looking to shop local would be left with nowhere to park.

It is hoped a three-hour limit will encourage a turnover in traffic, which will help surrounding firms.

Existing parking spaces will also be marked out, which means the area can be used more efficiently.

Cllr Mark Mather, county councillor for the Wooler ward, said: "We recognise the importance of local business and we feel if we add these turnover times, then we’ll get the right people in the right place.

“Anything that we’re trying to do recently is about tourism, but we’re not going to do anything that doesn’t benefit local people.

“Three hours is enough time to meet some friends for lunch, have a walk by the river and take the kids to the park before wanting to go home.”

The recent opening of the Ad Gefrin whisky distillery and Anglo-Saxon Museum has sparked a wave of investment in the town, including car parks and public toilets.

Mr Mather added: “We want Wooler to be a visitor destination and we need to make sure that we take the local people on that journey with us, so its about getting facilities.

"We’re really trying to spend considerable money on facilities so that when people come they want to come back but we need locals on this journey and we want them to benefit from tourists.

“It’s about trying to make sure local businesses get the most out of opportunities from the potential increase of tourists from Ad Gefrin and national parks and we all need to work together.”

To comment on the proposal, contact [email protected] by Friday, April 28.