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Salisbury Coach Park to get a makeover

Coach passengers arriving at Salisbury city centre will soon benefit from better facilities and a more pleasant experience as part of the remodelling works due to take place at Salisbury Coach Park

Published 7 December 2023

Coach passengers arriving at Salisbury city centre will soon benefit from better facilities and a more pleasant experience as part of the remodelling works due to take place at Salisbury Coach Park.

Located at Mill Stream Approach, the coach park will be closed from Tuesday 2 January 2024 for approximately four months to enable the remodelling works to be carried out.

Once reopened, the coach park will provide six coach spaces in the main coach park for drop off/pick up passengers only. The layover parking will provide a further ten spaces on the Central Car Park, in the area currently occupied by the Environment Agency's site compound. 

The area will also benefit from improved lighting, wayfinding and landscaping, including planting of native species of trees and shrubs plus the creation of a small pocket park to the south of the Elai Restaurant. A welcome space will also be created close to the new foot bridge which will include seating and an information board. A mural is also underway on the toilet block to further improve the area.

Cllr Caroline Thomas, Wiltshire Council's Cabinet Member for Transport, said: I'm really pleased to see the remodelling works are starting in the new year. I'm sure people will agree that the current coach park site does not provide a great first impression for people visiting Salisbury and could have an impact on repeat visits. For Salisbury to make the most of the visitor economy and be people's destination of choice, it is important we provide better facilities for coaches to pick up and set down passengers who visit and wish to experience all this historic medieval city has to offer.

It therefore made sense for these improvements to be undertaken as part of the Salisbury River Park project and are the last of the big infrastructure activities to be carried out before the project completes next summer.

We recognise that these improvements will cause some disruption to local people and especially the coach drivers. We have chosen to carry out these works at the beginning of the year when statistically fewer coach visitors come to Salisbury. We would like to thank everyone in advance for their patience during this time, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Wiltshire Council would like to offer the following advice to coach drivers.

During the period the coach park is closed, the only place that coaches will be able to pick up and set down passengers in Salisbury city centre will be:

  • Exeter Street, where four free temporary coach parking bays will replace the current car parking area north of Carmelite Way (residents' parking on Exeter Street remains unchanged)
  • The existing coach drop-off bays near the Cathedral on St John's Street

Coach drivers should not try to set down on any of the city centre bus stops as these are heavily used by local bus service and Civil Enforcement Officers will have instructions to move on any coaches that try to use them.

To access Exeter Street and St John's Street, coach drivers should use the A36 Ring Road (Churchill Way) to approach the city centre from the south along Exeter Street. When leaving St John's Street we recommend coach drivers turn right into Ivy Street then right again into Brown Street, then stay in the left-hand lane to rejoin Exeter Street and Churchill Way. We would urge coach drivers to please avoid driving through the city centre as Fisherton Street is operating as one-way towards the city centre until Summer 2024.

As coaches cannot wait on the coach bays on St John's Street for longer than 10 minutes, any coaches setting down passengers there will need to return to the parking bays on Exeter Street or use the alternative coach parking area that is provided at the Britford Park & Ride site on the A338 Downton Road to the south of the city.

As coach drivers enter the Britford Park & Ride site, please be sure to bear right past the Park & Ride building and park up in one of the marked coach bays on the right-hand side. The site is not supervised but is open 24 hours and toilets are available in the Park & Ride building during the daytime, every day except Sundays. A special Park & Ride bus service (route PR9) runs from there to the city centre approximately every 30 minutes between 8am and 6.30pm. A convenience store is available a short walk away on Rowbarrow.

Further details about the Coach parking that will be available in Salisbury during this period will be available shortly on the Connecting Wiltshire website or people can email buses@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window).

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