A much-needed new car park in Holt has moved a step closer with builders set to start work soon at the Cley Road site.

The long-awaited 80-space public car park will ease traffic congestion in the town, and could be open by the summer.

The facility is expected to provide a mixture of pay and display and permit parking.

The pricing structure is still to be decided by Holt Town Council, whose members approved the contractors for the site at a meeting on Monday.

Holt mayor Duncan Baker said a shortage of parking spaces had been driving business and visitors away from the town.

He said: 'This has been on the cards for more than five years, and we can finally see it coming to fruition.

'Once the contractor starts we expect it to be built within a few months, with the car park open by the summer.

'There will be up to 80 spaces and we will decide on the pricing structure at future meetings.

'We feel this is a wonderful opportunity that the town council has been able to deliver.

'It will be the first major car park to be delivered in many years and will be a much-needed solution to the chronic problem of parking in the town.

'As well as alleviating the huge pressure on the town to deliver a car park, it will ensure tourists, residents and workers have somewhere to park and explore the town from.

'The town has suffered hugely for a period of years because we have not had enough parking spaces at peak periods of the day. This has prevented people coming to the town. Money raised from the new car park will be reinvested in services for the town.'

A town council spokesman said that the scheme was being funded through a section 106 agreement, and with the imminent yellow lining of Cley Road, it would be an essential asset for the town.

The car park is being built on the site of a former poultry farm.

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