Residents have had their say on how the parking offering could be improved in Bolton town centre.

Having revealedhat Bolton Council earned more than £1m from parking tickets over a 12-month period, The Bolton News asked members of the public to share their thoughts on how the parking could be improved.

Responding to the question, ‘What do you think could be done to improve parking options in Bolton town centre?’, residents offered up their thoughts, from making parking free or cheaper, to the need for more spaces.

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On resident said: “Make it free then people might actually visit. It might help kickstart the town and actually attract some shops into the ever-increasing number of empty, boarded up units.”

Plenty agreed with the free parking idea, while others called for cheaper parking – one person suggested £1 for a full day.

Another suggestion was to “stop closing parking spaces”.

They added: “I went to a show at the town hall on Saturday night and the council suspended the parking on Le Mans Crescent then ticketed every car that was parked in a bay which would’ve been free to park in after 6pm on every other evening.”

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While another says that the spaces that the town centre does have need to be amended, saying: “Repaint all of the parking spaces. Cars have got bigger, but spaces are still at 1960s standard size.”

There were also calls for leniency in the enforcement of the parking rules.

One said wardens “hang around when you’ve only got five minutes left”.

One resident called for a rethink of how people pay. They said: “Sort the stupid payment systems out.

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“Both times I’ve been I had to pay to park by card and how do you do that with no card? It would not take cash at them.”

If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at lewis.finney@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @lewisfinney18.