The city council has unveiled its plan to keep people moving when a large part of the city centre becomes a building site for the £700m project in four years' time.

Bosses at Preston Tithebarn Partnership last week said disruption was inevitable because of the scale of the project, which will cover 1.5m sq ft.

But Preston Council chief executive Jim Carr promised a continuous, full and uninterrupted bus service and said a number of new park and ride sites would be looked into before the Guild year of 2012.

He told the Evening Post: "The development itself needs to ensure that the city does not grid to a halt from day one. There will be provisions in place which are currently being negotiated with the county council."

That, he said, will mean the new bus station, at the corner of Manchester Road and Church Street, will be one of the first things to be built once initial demolition work is complete.

The current bus station will be knocked down one half at a time, with just half the station enough to keep every route running.

Mr Carr said: "We will knock down half of the bus station and the other half will be big enough for all the current routes. At the moment it is far too big.

"The new bus station will be being built from day one and we will open the new bus station before we knock down the second half of the current bus station. There will be a continuous bus service."

One of the biggest fears is the effect on car parking of the development. Once half the bus station is knocked down 584 spaces will be lost.

Mr Carr said: "One of the challenges is ensuring there is adequate car parking in the city. We are working with the county council to bring more park and rides on stream before the Guild."

No details of where the new sites might be have been released, but a site near Penwortham on the approach to the city centre has previously been discussed.

For more on this story see Friday's Lancashire Evening Post.

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