WINCHESTER civic chiefs are poised to use emergency powers to resurface the River Park Leisure Centre car park.

The city council's all-powerful Cabinet will decide whether to spend £29,000 on the scheme when it meets next Monday.

Councillors agreed to spend £7,000 on repairing a small section of the car park as part of the project to open Hyde Abbey Garden - a tribute to King Alfred - earlier this month.

Council leader Sheila Campbell said: "There were some spaces which were damaged during the construction and some new spaces which had to be made, and we set aside £7,000 for this."

Now the council is considering allocating an extra £22,000, more than three times the original estimate, to resurface the whole car park.

Mrs Campbell says the council is examining the move as a way to save money on repairs.

She said: "It's better value for money to do it this way. It really is an advantageous price, seeing as the contractors are already on site."

She added that if the car park was resurfaced it would avoid it looking like an "untidy patchwork", which would be the case with running repairs.

The council is currently drawing up legal documents to introduce charges at the leisure centre car park.

Mrs Campbell said the move was needed to keep the car park available for leisure centre users and stop misuse by commuters parking near the city centre all day for free.