Salisbury coach park to close for four months

Salisbury coach park will be closed from Tuesday 2 January 2024 for approximately four months to enable remodelling works to be carried out.

Once completed, coach drivers and their passengers should benefit from better facilities and a more pleasant experience, according to Wiltshire Council. Six coach spaces are to be provided for picking-up/dropping-off passengers and a further ten coach spaces in the adjacent Central Car Park for layover parking.

During the period the coach park is closed, the only place that coaches will be able to pick-up and set-down passengers in Salisbury city centre will be:

• Exeter Street, where four free temporary coach parking bays will replace the current car parking area north of Carmelite Way (residents’ parking on Exeter Street remains unchanged)
• The existing coach drop-off bays near the Cathedral on St John’s Street

The Council warns coach drivers should not try to set-down on any of the city centre bus stops as these are heavily used by local bus service and Civil Enforcement Officers will have instructions to move on any coaches that try to use them.

To access Exeter Street and St John’s Street, coach drivers should use the A36 Ring Road (Churchill Way) to approach the city centre from the south along Exeter Street. When leaving St John’s Street we recommend coach drivers turn right into Ivy Street then right again into Brown Street, then stay in the left hand lane to rejoin Exeter Street and Churchill Way. Wiltshire Council urges coach drivers to avoid driving through the city centre as Fisherton Street is operating as one-way towards the city centre until Summer 2024.

As coaches cannot wait on the coach bays on St John’s Street for longer than ten minutes, any coaches setting-down passengers there will need to return to the parking bays on Exeter Street or use the alternative coach parking area that is provided at the Britford Park & Ride site on the A338 Downton Road to the south of the city.

Coach drivers entering the Britford Park & Ride site, should be sure to bear right past the Park & Ride building and park up in one of the marked coach bays on the right hand side. The site is not supervised but is open 24 hours and toilets are available in the Park & Ride building during the daytime, every day except Sundays. A special Park & Ride bus service (route PR9) runs from there to the city centre approximately every 30 minutes between 8am and 6.30pm. A convenience store is available a short walk away on Rowbarrow.

Artist’s impression of the new coach parking area in Salisbury

• Further details about the coach parking that will be available in Salisbury during this period will be available shortly on the Connecting Wiltshire website and coach operators that require additional information can email [email protected] or ring 01225 718080.