Residents have had their say in what they would like to see alleviate Marlow’s parking woes, with a multi storey car park in the centre of town topping a BFP readers poll.

A total of 138 readers voted on the poll on the Bucks Free Press website entitled ‘What is the best solution to Marlow’s parking problems which ran for 24 hours.

A multi storey car park in the centre of town paired with a park and ride came out on top, winning 47 percent of the votes cast.

The introduction of residents’ parking permits came third (16 percent of votes), followed by discounted parking for town centre workers (10 percent of votes) and reduced high street parking times accumulating just nine percent of votes.

Reader comments on the website also suggested Marlow needed to be made more pedestrian friendly by removing High Street parking, and encouraging residents to walk to town.

However ten Marlow residents questioned on the High Street were opposed to the idea of a multi storey car park, saying it was not in keeping with the town – with one resident saying she did not think the parking system needed to change.

This comes after the Marlow Chamber of Commerce announced it had joined forces with the Marlow Society to come up with a collective parking proposal to present to the authorities.

A number of short term options are under discussion including reducing High Street parking from one hour to 30 minutes and to offer 1 hour free parking in all car parks expect Court Gardens, on Pound Lane.

The groups are also investigating the option of designating Court Gardens as a long term car park and lower the charges for longer stays; and implement a system which informs people which car parks have spaces.

Longer term options of a park and ride from a multi-storey car park in Globe Park and three level car parks – one going underground – in Liston Road and behind Sainsbury’s on West Street are also under consideration.

Mr Thornby said: “Ever since on road and off road parking got split between the two councils it has been more difficult for residents to go to the powers that be.

“We decided to formulate a group made up of residents and businesses to come up with a proposal because we thought if we don’t then no one will.

“I was pleased to see that many of the proposals put forward by the Town Council were similar to ours so hopefully we will get someone from the town council to join the group too.”