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Car
Parks
There are five car
parks, only two of which are free of
charge:
Kem Mill car park is signposted off A6 at
Whittle-le-Woods, near the chemist, parking is free
of charge.
Town Brow car park is signposted, on the north
side of Town Brow, Clayton-le-Woods. (Note that the
same road is called Lancaster Lane or Sheephill Lane
further along. It runs between "The Hayrick" and "The
Pines"), parking charges apply.
Berkeley Drive car park is near the visitor
centre, off Shady Lane (no signpost) – just follow Berkeley
Drive round to the right and there are several sets
of parking spaces on the way down to the Park,
parking charges apply.
Wigan Road car park is signposted, on the
east side of A49 Wigan Road, between the motorway bridges
south of Bamber Bridge, parking charges apply.
Stag Lodge car park is located on the east
of A49 just south of the junction with A6 at Bamber
Bridge (no signpost), parking is free of charge.
All the car parks have height barriers just over
six feet, which have recently been replaced, with the exception of Berkeley Drive car park,
they are all level and tarmaced.
Parking Charges
Parking Meters in our Car Parks were
activated on Wednesday 9 December 2009 and visitors will
be expected to display a parking ticket or permit from
that day onwards.
A day
ticket, weekly ticket or permit is valid in any of the
three car parks at Berkeley Drive, Town Brow or Wigan
Road.
Anyone
wishing to purchase a quarterly permit please contact
the Park Office on 01772 324436 or download the
application
form here.
Parking
Charges as follows:
Daily ticket £1
Weekly ticket £4
Quarterly Permit £40
Join the Friends of Cuerden Valley Park and save £5 on a
Quarterly Permit or you can pay for the whole year
buying four quarters at the same time.
You may also pay with a standing order for
monthly, quarterly or yearly payments.
From January 2011 anyone parking, in any of
the three car parks, without purchasing and
clearly displaying a ticket or a parking
permit will be issued with a parking fine of
£85.
Why Charge for Parking?
The
award winning Park covers 650 acres from Bamber Bridge
in the north through Clayton-le-Woods to
Whittle-le-Woods near Chorley and is home to a wide
variety of wildlife.
The Park is owned and managed by an
independent charity, rather than the local authority, and
relies mainly on income from an endowment, received when
the Trust took over the Park in 1992.
Unfortunately income from the endowment and other
sources has not kept up with the increase in the cost of
running a large country park and has resulted in the
Trust running a deficit over the last few years. The
Trust has looked to reduce costs which has included
making two members of staff redundant and reducing the
hours of another, but the Trust also
needs to increase its income and therefore reluctantly introduced parking charges.
Park Manager Jim Longbottom said “The Trust is in a difficult position. Unless the
deficit can be reduced the Trust’s reserves will be
exhausted within 5-10 years and the Park will have to
close. We hope users will understand and continue to
support the Park”
The current situation stems from a
problem with the original endowment from the Commission
for the New Towns which was insufficient to cover long
term funding of the Park. The Trust is trying to work
with various partners in order to resolve this problem.
Please contact the Park Manager on 01772 324436 for
further information. |
