PLANS to build a multi-storey car park in Chippenham have been criticised for not being environmentally conscious.

Sadlers Mead, next to the Olympiad Leisure Centre, will be shut from January 10 as construction of the new car park, which will increase spaces from 165 to 237, begins.

Cllr Clare Cape, a Chippenham Lib Dem, said: “We’re in a climate emergency so why we’re building multi-storey car parks I don’t know. Every car that goes into that new car park will be sat clogging up Station Hill at some point in the day. And at the busiest points of the day they will be sat there idle, adding to the traffic.

“On balance I do not think this is the smartest and most thought-out decision.”

Wiltshire Councillor for the ward, Nick Murry, said: “The public money being spent here should have been invested in more parking on the North side of the station.

"This is the wrong location for a multi-storey carpark and it will force more traffic towards the town centre, causing more congestion on Station Hill.

“It is a prime example of short term thinking and unsustainable development.”

Cllr Bridget Wayman, cabinet member for Highways, said: “Chippenham is a thriving town with exciting economic opportunities. This investment will help provide more car parking spaces in our growing town, including electric car parking spaces with scope for more for the future.

“We have put plans in place to ensure there is sufficient car parking elsewhere in the town while this essential work takes place and we thank motorists for their patience during this time.

"We look forward to sharing with them our much-improved car parking spaces in the future.”

Jennifer Rudd of the Chippenham Civic Society said: “We are horrified the council intends to go ahead with building this five-storey monstrosity in a conservation area, overlooking our much loved and historic park.

"It is clearly the wrong location and will be a blot on the landscape.”

The car park work will take place alongside the building of new headquarters for Good Energy, which is next door.

Good Energy’s new offices, currently in design development, will include cycle parking, solar panels and battery storage, with 40 parking spaces for the office building at ground level.