The council has quashed suggestions that a Marlow car park should have a new deck added to ease parking problems, as they reveal they will submit an application for a new interim car park before the end of the year.

Over the past five years, residents and councillors have repeatedly called for a multi-storey car park in the town to try and alleviate chronic parking problems.

However, Wycombe District Council has insisted that decking the Riley Road car park in the centre of the town would be an “expensive solution.”

The argument was reignited at a meeting of the Marlow Community Forum in October, with Marlow Museum’s chairman, Mike Hyde, saying the “only choice is to go up.”

He said: “I think we have to go up - the parking problems will get worse as there will be more and more cars.

“In Wycombe, Maidenhead and Aylesbury there are so many multi-storey car parks and you get used to that. They are not used to that here.”

Marlow Society member, Bob Savidge, said the town is “inundated” with cars and a solution needs to be found.

He said: “Virtually all of the shops that are in Marlow are now in Maidenhead. So why would you come to Marlow when you could go there and park in car parks right next to where you want to go?

“We are inundated with cars coming in and people are beginning to discover there is nowhere to park. Don’t ask me where all these people are because they are not in the High Street.

“This car parking problem hasn’t been addressed. When is it going to move forward? It’s been five or six years now. I would have thought the council would be interested in keeping Marlow alive.”

Cllr Roger Wilson, a Wycombe District councillor, said the problem with adding a new level to the car park on Riley Road is cost.

He said: “We could look after the capital costs but what would our returns be? If we put a new deck in the central car park how many cars would actually use the first floor?

“People want to be as close as they possibly can to their shop and I can’t see that changing. I can’t see many people using it.

“There is a dialogue going on about what we should be doing but money is tight all round.”

Plans for a 111-space car park for a Marlow industrial estate as part of a potential Travelodge project in the area were first revealed in May this year and it has now been confirmed that a planning application will go in before the end of the year. 

Wycombe District Council spokesman, Simon Farr, said: “Wycombe District Council is working with partners to look at wider solutions to parking and congestion around Marlow and the Globe Business Park.

“We are due to submit a full planning application for an interim 111 space surface car park in Fieldhouse Lane before the end of the year to help ease parking issues on the business park, and are committed to contribute £250,000 towards Highways England’s proposed improvements to the A404 Westhorpe Interchange to help alleviate congestion around the town.

“We continue to review all of our car parks in the district but in terms of the car park in Riley Road, decking would be an expensive solution to peak-time demand as the design and planning phase would be complex.”

What are your views? Let us know by emailing Stephanie.wareham@london.newsquest.co.uk.