The planned closure of a Lowestoft car park has been pushed back to the end of March 2017.

Earlier this month it was announced that Battery Green car park, in the centre of Lowestoft, was to close on January 6 2017.

However, the car park will now stay open until the end of March 2017, allowing the offer made by Lowestoft Vision to provide free parking on Sundays and from 3pm on Wednesdays to continue.

Cllr Mike Barnard, Waveney's Cabinet Member for Resources said: 'To ensure that a range of associated work including signage, as well as discussions with Lowestoft Vision and neighbouring retailers, especially Wilkinsons, can be concluded, we have decided that a small delay to the initial works would be appropriate.'

Waveney District Council said their decision to close the four-storey car park was based on a lack of demand for the car park and the building being in disrepair.

Following the announcement a number of local business owners said the plan would affect local business.

However, Cllr Barnard said the plans to close the car park still stand.

Cllr Barnard said: 'As we have already stated, evidence shows that current demand for the car park is low and the huge cost of repairs cannot be justified.

'There are currently over 1,000 car park spaces in Lowestoft town centre with Battery Green currently providing under a quarter of the available allocation.

'However, according to ticket sales figures, our car parks are, on average, filled to between 33 pc and 40 pc of their total capacity each month. So even with the closure of Battery Green these figures would only rise to between 43 pc and 59 pc of capacity.

'Finding somewhere to park in Lowestoft is not, and has never been, an issue and we absolutely must look at ways to invest in the economic growth of the town rather than ploughing money in to a car park which isn't needed. We are excited by the potential for creating something very special on this town centre location, bringing jobs and important regeneration to what is, admittedly, an unattractive site.'

Following the closure of the car park the building will be demolished before the land is put forward for development.