Parking spaces have been reduced at Cirencester's Waterloo car park as the first phase of work to turn it in to a multi-storey begins.

From Monday, September 20 trenching works will be taking place for a approximately two weeks as part of the ongoing Cirencester Parking Project.

There will be three separate trenches dug as part of the archaeological evaluation required by Historic England before work in full can begin.

Each of the areas intended for the trenching work were coned off on Thursday night with work set to begin to dig the trenches on Monday.

Cirencester has a rich history dating back to the days when Corinium was one of the main towns in Roman Britain.

And while a new car park has been seen as key for the town, there is the need to check that there is nothing of historical value on the site.

Cllr Mark Harris, Cabinet Member for Car Parks and Town and Parish Councils, at Cotswold District Council, said: "Clearly, before we move forward with this project we need to adhere to our archaeological obligations.

"Cirencester is historically very important and everyone living here will be aware of that.

"Crucially it's important to us that we deliver a successful car park for the town and that naturally involves a lot of preliminary work.

"We want to ensure we minimise disturbance to local residents and visitors to the area and we thank them for their patience while this work is carried out."

In July, Cotswold District Council began a public consultation process, gathering views on the external design of the new four-storey car park which is proposed for the site.

The initial consultation yielded no clear favourite between the three proposed designs for the site, despite 1,200 people taking part in the survey.

The three designs: grandly-named 'wooden weave', 'hare and mosaic' and 'aluminium and stone' were voted upon, with the council saying there was no clear winning design.

The council are now modifying designs before launching another consultation where they hope to pick a winner. Once complete, it would provide 639 spaces.