A FORMER courier delivery site has been converted into a 150-space car park in a bid to reduce congestion in a Hampshire town centre.

But Eastleigh residents living in Dutton Lane fear the old UPS site would lead to traffic chaos at the junction with Bishopstoke Road.

Permit holders and town centre workers in Eastleigh will be able to park at the site after civic bosses unanimously gave the green light.

Eastleigh Borough Councillor Judith Grajewski said the car park would lead to queues of traffic as people waited to get in and out of the car park.

She said: “There could be lots of errors [from driving]. I just hope that there isn’t an accident but I fear there might be as people are coming and going at peak times.”

A review of the site as a car park is planned in five years’ time but she questioned whether that would ever be done allowing it become a permanent fixture.

Eastleigh Borough Council’s area committee had deferred the matter for a month to allow a traffic survey to be completed measuring how many cars use the area during the day.

But Dutton Lane resident John Tapscott described the survey as “minimal”.

“Residents have been having problems getting out of Dutton Lane for years,” he said.

“This isn’t just a problem for the residents, people can be waiting there for five or ten minutes trying to get their children to school, trying to get to work, they’re relying on the goodwill of other motorists to get out.”

Ed Vokes, Eastleigh Borough Council’s head of transport and engineering said a 12-hour survey was done to assess traffic flows.

He said that although the council will be benefitting financially from the car park he said the money wasn’t the council’s primary motive.

“We did this because there were demands for more spaces and this site was felt to be the best site,” he said. “It’s not about revenue I can assure you.”