FRUSTRATED weekend shoppers fed up with having to spend time trawling Skipton for a car parking space may have to look no further.

Skipton Building Society and The Rotary Club of Skipton have joined forces to reopen the charity car park on the ground level at SBS on its Bailey site.

Every Saturday and Bank Holiday, 200 spaces will be available to the public for the flat rate fee of £1.50, between 10am and 6pm.

Rotarian Geoff Thomas said it was a win-win situation as all the money raised would go to charities supported by Rotary and it would ease pressure on the town's other car parks.

"It not only gives a benefit to charities, it gives a lot of benefit to the retail environment as well," he said.

Mr Thomas added that the car parking spaces would otherwise just be lying idle on a Saturday as most of the staff only worked a five-day week.

The scheme has been run successfully in the past and has raised up to £8,000 for charities. "We can start raising some very lucrative funds," he said.

Fifteen months ago the scheme had to be halted whilst refurbishment work was done on the Skipton site, but from Good Friday the spaces will be available.

Mr Thomas pointed out that he did not think the Rotary Club would be emptying the council run car parks but that visitors would be more inclined to come to the town as there would be less pressure to find a parking space.

"What we are actually doing is providing the extra buffer space that the council cannot. We are saving the council having to double deck," he said.

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