A GROUP should be set up to look into car parking in Chelmsford town centre.

Deputy mayor Robin Stevens made the call during a debate at a recent full council meeting.

The opposition Liberal Democrat group had the choice of submitting a topic for debate at the meeting and selected the thorny issue of car parking.

The particular issues they wanted discussed were the impact of Park and Ride on the town centre, the impact on residential areas of commuter, student and town worker parking, parking standards and the strategy for discouraging car use in the town centre.

A presentation given by council officers told councillors the impact of the new Park and Ride at Chelmer Valley, due to open in spring next year, would mean a drop of £300,000 in car park revenue.

As a result, work was being carried out to look at the future of surplus car parking sites and assets that could be raised from their sale.

The asset value of car parking sites is about £20million, Ian Grundy, cabinet member for safer communities, told the meeting.

Mr Stevens said he believed a small panel should be formed to look at car parking on a regular basis.

The meeting heard problems were particularly bad near Anglia Ruskin University, where students parked in nearby roads.

Cllr Grundy said charges to park on the site were going up in September and that would add to the problem.