Maidstone's Mote Park is set to re-open its visitor car park this Easter weekend - but not in its entirety.

Bosses closed the car park on February 5 and had hoped to have completed the extensive improvement work in time for the bank holiday, but severe weather conditions brought by the Beast from the East has had a significant impact on progress at the park.

Laurence Tricker, programme and projects manager for Maidstone Borough Council, said: "The main car park was scheduled to be completed in good time for the Easter break.

"The snow and freezing conditions meant we weren’t able to progress as quickly as we’d anticipated, despite our best efforts."

Paul Abrahams, southern operations director at Kier Construction, which is carrying out the work, said: "We’ve been working hard with the council to open the car park before the Easter weekend, ahead of schedule, but due to the severe weather earlier this month, we were unable to access the site or lay materials safely for a number of days.

"However, over 100 car park spaces will be available over Easter and we remain on course to complete the remaining area, on schedule, in early April."

Mr Tricker added: "Visitors can still use the majority of the new car park and there are other car parks available close to the park.

"We hope to have the main car park fully open as soon as possible. In the interim, we’re advising visitors to check our website and Facebook and Twitter pages for the very latest updates."