PENSIONERS and disabled people in Westhoughton could be set to get car-parking bays outside their homes.

The move is being planned following the closure of a car park which left elderly residents on nearby Mill Street with a five minute walk to their vehicles.

Westhoughton Town Council leader Cllr David Wilkinson said people should have been consulted earlier about the council's decision to terminate the car park lease, which was based on an agreement with Southport-based entertainment firm Silcock's Fairs. He said plans for the bays were drawn up in June 2001, which would have given the local authority time to ask people's views about the car park's closure. Instead, they were told days before it was shut.

Cllr Wilkinson said: "It seems that somebody at Bolton Council was thinking about closing the car park and creating the bays 18 months ago.

"But they didn't tell members of the town council. Businesses, shoppers and residents have lost out."

Mr Wilkinson has now asked Bolton Council's chief executive Bernard Knight to investigate why Westhoughton councillors were not consulted.

Bolton Council had been leasing the car park from Silcock's for a number of years but is thought to have terminated the lease to save money. Parking bays could now be laid out in front of homes in Mill Street. Some of the occupants, including 70-year-old Wilf Hunt, are disabled blue badge holders. Mr Hunt said: "We're still waiting to see if we will all get parking spaces. I've used that car park for years. I don't understand why it's suddenly closed."

A spokesman for Bolton Council said the details of the parking bay scheme were yet to be decided. Any bays that would be built would not just be for disabled drivers, she said.

She added: "The council is looking at introducing on-street parking bays in Mill Street.

"A report is currently being prepared and will go to the Executive Member for the Environment on December 16."

Parking bay plan

for the elderly