THE pressure is mounting on North Wiltshire District Council to provide extra car parking spaces in Malmesbury.

The Malmesbury and St Paul Without Residents' Association has added its weight to a campaign headed by the chamber of commerce to lobby the council.

The association has sent a letter to council chief executive Bob Marshall demanding action to curb the traffic gridlock.

Association vice-chairman Bill Sykes said it had been a matter of concern to its members for some time.

He said: "Increased tourists are coming into the Abbey House gardens, which is fantastic, but it has increased the number of vehicles in the town and we need to have the car parking for the amount of traffic we are going to get."

There had been a series of meeting earlier in the year with councillors, the Abbey House gardens and other interested parties to find a short and long term problem to the solution.

A quick fix had been identified by the group of creating 50 car parking spaces at the Old Station Yard car park at a cost of around £35,000.

But there was no money set aside in the district council's budget this year to carry out the work, despite the £69,844 the council made from parking fees in Cross Hayes car park in 2001/02.