Park and ride plans

Commuters’ facility grows to meet demand from the town

North Lanarkshire Council have agreed to purchase an area of land in order to extend the Park and Ride facility in Harthill.

The acquisition of the Miller Street site, which will cost the council £ 77,500, was agreed following a meeting at the Civic Centre earlier this month.

The council will now be able to press on with their plans to increase the number of spaces at the Park and Ride from 78 to 200 subject to legal negotiations.

Fortissat councillor Charlie Ceffer t y is delighted the plans can now be put into action.

He said: “It will be a tremendous boost as this is something that we have been working for around 12 or 13 years.

“If you speak to anyone locally they will say that this has been badly needed.

“We are midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh so to have a larger Park and Ride to allow people to commute and travel to both cities is important.”

The extension was first muted back in 2008 when the council appointed consultants to undertake a survey to determine if Harthill required a larger Park and Ride.

The Miller Street site was identified in 2010 with the council receiving a grant from SPT totalling almost £ 435,000 for the development of the land.

H o w e v e r, the construction of the project was delayed due to the presence of Japanese Knotweed on the site which has since been removed.

Councillor Cefferty added: “My concern was that we were going to lose the SPT money but, thankfully, the project seems to be coming together.

“This type of infrastructure shows we are a real commuter town as well.”