Council eases Buxton parking headache

HIGH Peak Brough Council has taken steps to ensure visitors to Buxton have adequate parking during the £35m redevelopment of the iconic Crescent building and neighbouring Natural Baths.

Forty on-road parking spaces have been lost since work started last month on a nationally-important project to deliver the UK’s first genuine spa hotel in more than a century.

The reduction in parking has caused particular problems for the Old Hall and Grosvenor House Hotels, which have long been allowed to allocate some of the spaces to their guests.

But the borough council has now stepped in by allowing hotel guests to use its pay-and-display car parks in Market Place and the Pavilion Gardens, and on The Slopes.

Civil enforcement officers have been told not to fine anyone displaying the hotels’ parking permits in their car windscreens.

Borough council leader Caitlin Bisknell said: “The Crescent redevelopment is a fantastic project that will deliver a 79-bedroom, 5-star spa hotel incorporating the neighbouring Natural Baths. The transformation will also provide a brand new visitor interpretation centre, state-of-the-art thermal spa, and eight specialist shops.

“"The scheme will cement Buxton’s growing reputation as a centre for tourism and will create major benefits for the wider local economy, reaching beyond the town's boundaries. However, a development on this scale means that disruption is inevitable. That’s why we have actively worked with local businesses to minimise the impact while work takes place,” she explained.

Meanwhile, the council is developing a three-year parking strategy that will make best use of parking to support tourism and the retail economy. The aim is to establish a pay-and-display hierarchy that ensures rapid turnover on town centre car parks by concentrating longer-stay parking on peripheral car parks.