MORE than 160 new parking spaces will be made available in Darlington town centre next month.

The borough council took over the operation of the East Street car park from NCP in June.

Since then, work has been carried out to open the car park's second deck to provide the extra spaces. The area opening early next month will be short-stay.

Nick Wallis, the council's cabinet member for transport, said: "The opening of the second deck of the car park will contribute to the vibrancy of the town centre.

"This is a significant increase in the number of car spaces available in the town for shoppers.

"This car park will bring more people into the town which will boost the local economy at a time when retailers across the country are experiencing slow trade.

"The opening of these new car parking spaces shows Darlington council's commitment to create a busy and prosperous town centre which shoppers want to visit."

However, the quality of parking provision in the town centre has still come in for criticism.

Conservative group leader, Tony Richmond, welcomed the extra spaces at East Street, but said there were many more on-going problems.

"There is still a wider problem to address and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that people are not coming into Darlington, irrespective of whether there has been a national problem with the retail trade," he said.

"The council is not addressing that problem as well as it should be."