LAST week’s revelation that a park and ride in the heart of Rawtenstall was being planned for the use of those travelling on the X43 to and from Manchester (or Burnley) certainly raised eyebrows.

Now the council has revealed it plans to charge for long-stay parking in Rawtenstall as part of the proposals. That’s a big deal and worthy of a proper debate in its own right.

At the moment, there are several long-stay car parks in and around the town centre. It’s clear that some, maybe many, of those spaces are used by people who subsequently travel elsewhere by bus.

But there will also be people who work in the town centre who need somewhere to park.

Staff at the shops on Bank Street for example.

Or people arriving to do business in town.

It’s unclear what the point of introducing long-term parking charges will have. It’s also unclear whether users of the X43 will have to pay for the parking.

Bear in mind, the special park and ride car park has been proposed to lure Transdev, the operators of the X43, into paying to use the new bus station, rather than the on-street shelters they currently use.

It would seem odd for a bus company to agree to use the bus station if it resulted in their customers having to pay to park in Rawtenstall when they can do so for free at the moment.

But above all, proposals to fundamentally change the way people can park in Rawtenstall shouldn’t just be mentioned off-the-cuff in this manner. Indeed, would it have changed the views of those who support the bus station plan if they had known part of the project involved introducing pay and display? The upshot of paid-for parking is blindingly obvious.

People will start parking on roads around the town centre instead.

The council will end up having to combat this with parking permits for residents, which residents either pay for or the council pays for.

It’s a red-tape nightmare.

And yet another unintended consequence of the insistence by some that Rawtenstall needs a bus station.