Visitors taking advantage of late night shopping in Burnley have been given an early Christmas present – free car parking.

Parking fees have been suspended on all council-run town centre car parks on December 8th, 15th and 22nd. Charter Walk shopping centre’s car parks are also free to park in on late-night shopping days.

As usual, town centre shops open late on Thursdays leading up to the festive season – and council bosses have entered into the Christmas spirit by temporarily dropping parking charges. Charges will not apply from 5pm onwards on the late-night shopping days when many stores are open until 8pm.

Councillor Lian Pate, the council’s executive member for community services, said: “Burnley is going Christmas crackers and getting really busy. Late night shopping brings extra shoppers into the town centre and we want to support the festive spirit and drop parking charges for those nights.”

This is a Healthy High Streets initiative – part of a programme of measures the council and Healthy High Streets corporate partners are working on aimed at boosting footfall, increasing occupation of shops and creating jobs in the town centre.