CAR parks throughout Cirencester and the Cotswolds will be transformed as part of a major £1.5million redevelopment project.

Cotswold District Council will spend the money in a bid to improve the quality, access and environment of its car parks.

The first stage of the project, which was to appoint a contractor and come up with a common design, has already been completed.

Cllr Barry Gibbs, cabinet member responsible for parking issues, said: “We have commissioned a consultant to prepare a number of proposals for the upgrade of our car parks, starting with the Forum Car Park.

“We will be looking at all options for alternative methods of payment but, because of different traffic conditions applicable to each individual car park, there may not be a one-size-fits-all solution.”

However, the opposition to CDC’s Tory-led administration has claimed that this overhaul is long overdue.

Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, Lib Dem leader on CDC, said: “Given that CDC made a surplus of £1.5million on parking charges in just the last year alone, it must now deliver better car parks in return.

“For too long, drivers have had to put up with poor surfaces and bad layouts, like the Forum car park where it can be difficult to manoeuvre. It’s certainly time CDC’s administration put something back into the car parks they have made so much cash from.”

One of the alternate payment methods that CDC is thinking about implementing is one that would see motorists pay for their parking on exit.

Speaking about the timescale of the project, Cllr Gibbs said: “We are planning the first of these improvements in the Forum Car Park will be completed before 2015.

“But, bearing in mind that the Forum Car Park land is a protected archaeological site, there have to be site surveys and a number of public consultations before we are ready to go ahead.”

Last month CDC launched a new cashless parking method in all its car parks, allowing motorists to pay for their parking with their mobile phone.