A CIVIC watchdog has called for an imaginative development to replace a car park and replace it with a modern transport interchange for Harrogate.

Harrogate Civic Society successfully opposed a development scheme earlier this year for the car park, between the railway station and the town's bus station.

The society said it was one of the worst and most damaging proposals it had encountered in recent years.

"The application to build a row of small shops would have ruined any possibility of having a properly planned transport interchange in the future," said the society in its newly-published newsletter.

It welcomed the planning committee's "very robust refusal".

A planning spokesman for the society said the car parkwas a strategically important site in a very sensitive area.

"The new bus station is an excellent improvement on what went before. However, the rest of the site needs to be developed in an imaginative manner that capitalises on Harrogate's good fortune in having its rail and bus stations virtually co-located," said the spokesman.

Redevelopment of the old station site has recently created a Victorian-style terminal in a scheme costing £2.5m.

Meanwhile, the society's vision for the wider area was to:

* Use the existing Station Parade footbridge as a direct link to the bus station

* Create a ground level covered walkway between bus and rail links

* Build 24-hour toilets

* Establish waiting rooms

* Provide transport information, ticket sales and tourist information.

Consultants for potential developers of the car park site said of the earlier development application that its design was consistent with the council's objectives to conserve the built heritage of the district - and encourage high standards of design.

In terms of design, they said, it was appropriate when considered against the background of the range of architectural styles inherent in Harrogate.