PLANS to construct a 1,000-space multi-storey car park at council-owned Birchwood Park have been approved.

The application to build the site with 1,007 car parking spaces and 12 motorcycle spaces, on land between Reynolds Avenue and Griffiths Avenue, came before the development management committee last week and approval was granted.

The car park is proposed to be spread over five floors, with the facility to have a height of around 16 metres.

The application has been put forward because of the future closures of existing car parks in the area, including at Lovell House and the Quadrant.

This means the planning application is to replace these facilities rather than adding a further 1,000 spaces and increasing traffic flow.

Warrington Borough Council (WBC) officers say it would provide an extra 127 spaces overall.

The application has been submitted by WBC Birchwood Park Nominee 1 Ltd and WBC Nominee Two Ltd.

Birchwood Town Council has had no objections to the application but raised concerns regarding ‘speeding motorists’ within the business park.

In order to address this concern, it is requested that fixed speed awareness cameras should be considered when constructing the site.

WBC's environmental protection team also had no objections and said the increase in the number of cars using the car park is ‘not sufficient to trigger’ the need for an air quality assessment.

The development management committee saw no problems in approving the application at their recent meeting, saying the proposal would not have an unacceptable impact upon the highway network and provides an acceptable level of car parking provision, meeting the council’s standards.

The design of the proposal is also in keeping with the existing character of the area.