AS RESIDENTS of the Waterloo area, yes, we personally may feel alarm, but the choice of the Waterloo as the site for a multi-storey car park will have a much greater detrimental effect on many of our neighbours.

For 16 years we have looked out on the pretty flowering trees that fill this discrete little car park and also the mature trees beyond. 

It is a perfect link from the town centre through to the beautiful space in the Abbey Grounds. 

To look out on a multi-storey car park bears no comparison.

The existing car park is surrounded by dwellings on all four sides. 

For the many residents of the Waterloo flats, the houses in Corinium Gate, the cottage and bungalow to the east and the new apartments alongside the Argos car park, a multi-storey car park will dramatically change the outlook from their homes. 

For the residents of the Waterloo flats, the multi-story car park, no doubt three storeys high, will be directly in front of their windows obscuring the sunshine for the whole day.

It is not an exaggeration to say the effect on them will be catastrophic, life-changing for the worse. 

Many of the residents of the Waterloo flats are older and spend a lot of time indoors, the loss of light and the effect of greatly increased vehicle noise throughout the day will be appalling.

Walking around the town looking at other possible sites, none of the other sites has residential accommodation that is so close or likely to be so dramatically affected. 

In finding a solution to the car parking problem, it is surely imperative to assess the effect on the lives of residents living next to any chosen site.
From observation it seems that the site of the Old Memorial Hospital is ideally placed near to the town centre, and only overlooked obliquely by very few houses. 

Surely a multi-storey on that side of town would provide additional parking space for the possible 5,000-plus new residents from the Chesterton Farm development, employees of St James Place, for shoppers in the town, or Tesco and Waitrose, also and family and friends wishing to visit residents of the new McCarthy & Stone development. 

The old hospital building on the site is in a terrible state and needs to be removed, it is an eyesore.

Another really important factor is the volume of traffic that would be generated by a multi-storey car park in the Waterloo. 

All traffic approaching and leaving would have to negotiate the traffic lights at the top of Dyer Street. 

These lights are already too busy with the volume of traffic entering the town down Lewis Lane, and leaving the town via Dyer Street. 

The lights are heavily biased in favour of these two essential directions, therefore the traffic that would back up along The Waterloo would be unmanageable.

If the choice of site is not yet set in stone, we really hope there is an opportunity to seriously consider the factors set out above. 

We accept there is a need for a multi-storey car park for the convenience of those people visiting the town for a limited time but we would urge those involved in the final decision on the multi-storey car park site, to consider the dramatic effect on the every day lives of the many people who live in The Waterloo area.

MIKE & PENNY SMITH
Cirencester