The high street giants say they hope to have an Argos Extra store opened by November 13.

Shoppers in Ripon will also have another 50 free car parking spaces next week with the promise of more being made available over the coming weeks and months as the developement nears completion.

The Eric Wright Group, which is building the Booths Supermarket and other retail outlets, say they hope to have a permanent access road into the site completed next week with an expected 50 new spaces available from Monday.

Parking will be free until a planned pay and display scheme comes into operation west of Market Place though no date has yet been set for the introduction of charges. Visitors will also have to display a parking disk.

Development director, Neil Ward said: "As for the car park itself, we will release as much of it as we can to the public while we are finishing off the rest of the development.
"It's difficult to see how many spaces will be released next week but spaces will certainly be available as the development proceeds," he said.

Completed

Mr Ward also said his company hoped to hand over one of the completed retail units to new owners Argos in the coming weeks.
Rumours of Laura Ashley opening a store in Ripon were denied this week by a spokesman for the company.

The Booths store itself will be handed over in the coming months though is not expected to be open to the public until spring next year.
Last week also saw the completion of the first part of the development to be opened to the public with the unveiling of a show home and 21 two-bedroom flats being put on the market.

News of the progress west of Market Place was welcomed by Ripon business leaders following a summer of traffic congestion, parking shortages and loss of trade.

Good news

Anthony Blackburn, chairman of Ripon Area Business Association, said: "It's a fantastic bit of good news.
"From Monday we are going to have half of the new link road open from Blossomgate and the new car parking spaces.

"It's good to talk about parking in the city in positive terms rather than negative for a change."