A SMALL town centre car park is to be converted into a green space to improve the environment for shoppers and businesses.

Swindon Council plans to replace the 19 spaces at Davis Place surface car park with a “green gateway” at the junction of Market Street, Davis Place and Commercial Road.

The council has earmarked £225,000 for the next financial year to complete the conversion, plus a further £36,000 for maintenance and replanting.

Coun Garry Perkins, the council’s deputy leader, who is also responsible for regeneration, said this would be a simple way to improve the town centre environment.

He said: “The aim is to create an open green space within the town area where people can sit out at lunch times and other times. It’s just a small area of green.

“It will create a pleasant pathway from Commercial Road into the town centre. So it’s just to add additional ambience to the town centre by creating a small green space for people to spend their time in.”

Coun Perkins said the drawings are being worked up at the moment, but the park would include a couple of footpaths, plus some trees, benches and bins.

Davis Place is the latest surfaced area in the town centre to become a green space. In October, the council opened a temporary park on the former Post Office site, off Fleming Way. The park, which cost £131,000, has a life span of just three years while the Union Square development takes shape.

And last week, the Adver revealed that the council has provisionally earmarked £1.9m to turn Princes Street car park into a green public park, with a footpath linking it to the town centre.

Coun Perkins said the town centre has a surplus of car parks, some of which are outdated, and the council wants to encourage the use of more space-efficient multi-storey car parks, such as the new one to be built on the former police station site as part of Union Square.

He said: “We have a lot of car parks in the town and they’re being reviewed at the moment and we have an excess in the way of car parks.

“We’re trying to make the town that much more attractive for shoppers and for people to pass through.”

The conversion work at Davis Place is expected to take place in the late spring or early summer.