AN influx of people to Malvern Theatres under ambitious new plans will cause parking chaos, residents fear.

But the executive director of the theatres, Fred Moroni assured people that there are enough car parking spaces in the area to cope with the £20 million levelling up plans, which have been submitted to Malvern Hills District Council.

If given the green light, the plans, showcased by Mr Moroni at Wednesday's Malvern Town Council meeting, aim to attract 135,000 more visitors to the theatre a year and to boost the local economy by £11 million a year.

Cllr Clive Hooper said he had spoken to several people living in the town who were worried about bringing more people to the theatre would lead to car parking issues. 

Cllr Hooper asked if Malvern Theatres had spoken to the powers that be to persuade them to address car parking concerns or whether they were just going to 'wait and see what happens.' 

Mr Moroni said as part of its planning application a transport consultation document which has looked at car parking spaces, found there were enough in the area. 

He added: "We've looked at how many people come at certain times, even at the busiest times, and there are sufficient car parking spaces. 

"Many of the additional events we have will happen during the day, what we are doing here is turning a 2,100 seat arts centre into a 2,300 seat arts centre, so in terms of capacity its only about a 10 per cent increase. 

"I think its clear as a theatre we can communicate better with our audiences about car parking and we're looking at the ways we can do that.

"We have had constructive meetings with Waitrose who have expressed their desire to support the night time economy."

The theatre has put forward designs for workshop spaces and studio theatres, a recording studio and an outdoor amphitheatre.

Cllr Sean Austin asked for reassurances that the area won't be impacted through this development in the same way as when Malvern Theatres built studio one, which opened last year.

He said a car park was lost for a year throughout that development and feared Orchard Road would be impacted by this new work. 

Mr Moroni said: "We anticipate Orchard Road is going to be the only way in and out, once the decision is made about this development, which we hope will be by Christmas, then there are conversations to be had with those we appoint to carry out the work. 

"In terms of access into the building I will fight tooth and nail for us not to lose an entrance in the way we did when we built studio one."