THE opening of the new Aldi supermarket in Liskeard has caused chaos on the surrounding roads because the store's car park cannot cope with the

demand for spaces.

More than 14,000 customers visited the store in its first five days of trading, but its 60 parking bays are quickly filled and frustrated shoppers have been leaving their cars on the route leading down to Liskeard Community Hospital and on other roads

On the first day of trading, cars were being left wherever motorists could find a parking space.

Staff at the nearby Oak Tree Surgery put up a sign asking people not to leave their cars in the surgery parking spaces, which are reserved for patients only.

Acting practice manager Liz Delbridge said: 'We thought it would be busy initially and put up a sign at our car park entrance. We anticipate it will calm down and are monitoring the situation.

'On the opening day quite a lot of people didn't take any notice and used our car park anyway.'

Also affected by the chaos was A Line Coaches, which runs the 80B service from Torpoint to Liskeard. The firm reported it was unable to get buses down to Liskeard Hospital because of bad parking and other traffic issues. The operator suspended the service to the hospital and instead dropped off passengers at the bus stop in Charter Way. The firm resumed its normal service on Wednesday but has written a letter to Aldi.

At Aldi, assistant store manager Joe Saywell described the store's opening as a 'raging success'.

He said: 'On opening day, our property director was at the store and saw the parking situation for himself.

'It is intended to wait for a few months, when things should have calmed down and we have average sales figures to see if they warrant money being spent on more parking.

'We will have to ensure there is enough parking for our customers as we won't want to hinder sales in the future.

'Our staff are not using the store's car park, so that frees up more spaces for customers.'