Gainsborough's former Lidl site to be used as pay and display car park

A former supermarket site in Gainsborough has been acquired by the district council and turned into a pay and display car park.
The car park at the former Lidl supermarket in Gainsborough is to be used for pay and display parking.The car park at the former Lidl supermarket in Gainsborough is to be used for pay and display parking.
The car park at the former Lidl supermarket in Gainsborough is to be used for pay and display parking.

West Lindsey District Council has purchased the former Lidl site and surrounding land on Ropery Road.

In the short term, part of it will be turned into a pay and display car park and has been renamed Riverside Car Park.

The purchase is part of a wider regeneration parking strategy to create new leisure, retail and housing in the town centre, in addition to new car parking.

The council is marketing the existing retail unit to secure a tenant for the medium term, until the wider regeneration plans come to fruition.

Coun Sheila Bibb, chairman of the authority’s prosperous communities committee, said: “We have listened to residents and business and we are responding to their needs by increasing car parking provision.

“Riverside Car Park is part of our regeneration and car park strategy to provide additional capacity for the town, which we hope will further support residents and businesses as part of our long term goals to support the transformation of Gainsborough.

“In the short term the extra spaces will help support the town centre vibrancy along with the exciting developments already taking place across the town such as the new hotel, restaurant and improvements to the shop fronts on Market Street.”

The council’s car parking strategy plans to increase the number of spaces available in Gainsborough by 43 per cent over the next two years.

The strategy also aims to deliver 30 new spaces in the Roseway Car Park by September 2018, and a further 140 car parking spaces as the town centre develops from 2020.

The council said it had wanted to get the new car park up and operational as soon as possible to maximise use over the Christmas period. In January, improvement work will be carried out to create an additional 30 spaces, which will necessitate a temporary closure for three weeks.