PROGRESS towards getting work started on the next two park-and-ride sites for Salisbury remains uncertain, despite the £16.58m Christmas present the government has given to Wiltshire.

The windfall has been given to Wiltshire county council to give transport and road schemes a boost.

It will be spent on maintenance, safety projects, bridge-strengthening and integrated transport schemes. It could also mean progress on the Wylye Valley relief road and the Codford-Heytesbury A36 improvement project.

But in Salisbury there is disappointment, because there is no certainty any of the cash will go to the city's new park-and-ride sites at Wilton and Downton Road.

The county council wants to set up meetings for early January with the government office for the south-west, in a bid to push forward the two major projects for the A36 and to clarify the position over the park-and-ride sites.

The £16.58m is being split, with £11.58m being set aside for road maintenance throughout the county and bridge-strengthening schemes.

The remaining £4.65m goes to safety projects, integrated transport schemes and traffic management.

A spokesman for Wiltshire county council said the government office was waiting for the A36 study to be published before making final decisions on the A36 Codford-Heytesbury section and the A36 Wylye Valley relief road.

Portfolio holder for transport and the environment on Salisbury district council Dennis Brown said: "I am disappointed that the government has not yet given the final decision on our efforts to get extra funding towards the two next park-and-ride sites, as well as several other important traffic management schemes.

"We are no further advanced, really. We do need to know whether the two sites have to be paid for within the original £13m package or whether extra cash is coming."

He said the Wilton park-and-ride site tender had been accepted and he did not know how long the contractor would hold the price.

"Unless we get extra funding, we shall only be able to do the Wilton and Downton Road park-and-ride sites, and nothing else. This is not ideal."