The locked barriers that prevented a Fort William car park from being used for more than a year after businesses started trading from the site have been removed.
Vehicles are now able to park on the area of land on Fassifern Road, behind the £8million development in the Lochaber town, which included a new 60-bed Travelodge and a Wetherspoons pub and restaurant.
However, the car park is not available for general use as it has been leased to Travelodge by the developer, Ashford Property Group.
Councillor Brian Murphy, Fort William and Ardnamurchan, today said he was pleased it was in use at long last, but disappointed that it was not going to provide much needed additional parking spaces close to the High Street.
He said: “I had hoped that it could have been used for public parking as there is always a need for more parking for the High Street.
“I really can’t understand why it has taken so long to get this sorted.”
Mr Murphy previously explained that providing the car park was a condition of the planning permission granted to the developer by Highland Council, but this was lifted when Ashford Property Group was having difficulty filling the units.
Locals were surprised to discover that it remained locked after the businesses were up and running.
Since then, repeated calls have been made for it to be opened to provide extra parking spaces at the west end of the town.
These were met with various assurances from the developer that it would open soon, but it remained locked until the end of last week.
Andrew Robertson, of Ashford Property Group, has now revealed that Travelodge took over the lease of the 27-space car park last Friday.
He said: “The car park has been let to Travelodge. We are pleased that we have been able to get it opened up and that is now in use.”