Shoppers in Burton are being offered free parking in a number of on-street spaces in a bid to help local businesses hard hit by the three-month St Peter's Bridge closure.

Staffordshire County Council says the free parking move will help support a campaign to promote Burton businesses in the run-up to Christmas after the bridge reopens.

With the closure of St Peter's Bridge in place until the end of November, Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet support member for highways and transport Helen Fisher said every effort would be made to support local traders during the works.

She said: "With a project of this scale disruption is inevitable and we understand how difficult this has been for people and we thank everyone for their continued patience. We want to do everything we can to help local traders, so when we were asked by businesses to lift charges for on-street parking, we were keen to do so.

"This will run through to the end of the year and tie in well with our plans for a campaign to promote Burton businesses in the busy spell in the run-up to Christmas."

The parking bays, which are usually charged at meters, are situated in Lichfield Street and Manor Croft and the changes will see meters covered with display signs to inform people they do not need to buy tickets.

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The county council is also looking to see what business advice may be available to help traders during the bridge closure.

The £6.1million project announced by the Government in August will see essential repairs carried out to both St Peter's Bridge and Burton Bridge.

Crews are currently working from 7.30am to 10.30pm, Monday to Friday and until 4.30pm on a Saturday and due to the nature of the repairs overnight working cannot be carried out.

Parking on Lichfield Street, opposite Burton and south Derbyshire College is going to be free parking all day, until such time as the bridge repairs have been completed
Staffordshire County Council is offering shoppers free parking while St Peter's Bridge is closed

Helen added: "This is a very complex engineering project and due to a number of factors including presence and movement of plant machinery on the bridge, safety constraints, noise, availability of trained crews and the actual time required for some elements of the work to settle, round–the-clock working unfortunately isn't feasible. We are looking to reopen the bridge by the end of November and sooner if possible."

"We understand the frustrations of the people of Burton that the St Peter's Bridge closure is causing. These are essential works which need to be completed by the end of November, but of course are causing disruption.

"We want to support town centre traders in any way we can and we hope lifting parking charges will help. We will review the suspension of charges at the end of the year."

The county council parking bays, which will be free to park in from Monday, September 25, are located in Lichfield Street and Manor Croft. Charges would normally apply every day from 8am to 8pm.

People can sign up for updates at www.staffordshire.gov.uk/burtonbridges

Parking on Lichfield Street, opposite Burton and south Derbyshire College is going to be free parking all day, until such time as the bridge repairs have been completed
Shoppers using on street parking in Lichfield Street and Manor Croft will benefit from the free parking

Work is on schedule

Vital £6.1 million repair work to St Peter's Bridge which has caused weeks of disruption for motorists and local businesses is on schedule - with highways chiefs saying they are 'pleased' with progress.

Project team works to the key arterial route are underway - replacing bearings and deck joints needed to improve the structure.

Last week the project team completed bearing designs and removed all the pavements and old surface in the revamp which involves crucial strengthening work to allow HGVs to continue to use the route.

On Tuesday, the crews started working to restore the major route by removing the last parts of the old road surface and waterproofing before installing new deck joints.

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