Scale of park and ride overhaul unveiled

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Opponents of plans to build a new park-and-ride site on the edge of Bath have stepped up their campaign – at the same time as the council has given details of its plans to expand three other sites around the city.

The council has revealed it wants to expand its existing sites at Lansdown, Newbridge and Odd Down to provide an extra 1,120 parking spaces.

The council's preferred site for the new park and ride base is at Mill Lane in Bathampton and would provide 1,400 spaces.

But residents around Bathampton believe it would have a devastating effect on local wildlife and would do little to reduce traffic problems.

Around 100 people including schoolchildren from Bathampton and Batheaston Primary Schools attended a protest against the plans.

Batheaston resident Alison Millar said: "The Bathampton Meadows are an essential green space. They provide an important seasonal wetland habitat. They give an identity to Bath and the outlying villages by providing a break between potential urban sprawl. The beautiful approach to Bath along the Avon Valley is as important to the character of the city as any of the attractions that are within the World Heritage Site."

The protesters are being supported by the South West Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Vice chairman of the organisation Henrietta Sherwin said: "Park and rides were conceived in the early 1970s before transport policy had moved towards demand management and trying to restrict car traffic.

"They are an out of date policy and no substitute for the development of an integrated public transport network particularly with an ageing population. Now they are sold as providing transport choice but the question needs to be asked, choice for whom? Should limited resources be spent to encourage car access to Bath? Park and rides are expensive and have a considerable environmental impact but a very marginal congestion benefit."

The cost of the expansion would be funded by the £54 million Bath Transportation Package.

The council expects the park and ride expansion to tackle the congestion problems caused by some 27,000 people travelling in and out of Bath by car for work every day. It says the expansion of the park and ride network around the city is needed to combat the predicted 14 per cent increase in ten years of cars travelling through the city during the morning rush hour.

The enlarged Bath park and ride network would include 390 new spaces at Lansdown, 500 new spaces at Newbridge and 230 new spaces at Odd Down.

Newbridge residents have already objected to the proposals.

Cllr Charles Gerrish, the council's cabinet member for customer services, said: "The expansion of Bath and North East Somerset Council's park and ride services is just one element of the effort to support better public transport. The council's aim to improve transport and the public realm is undermined by limited overall park and ride capacity. The council's park and ride provision requires a radical overhaul through the addition of over 2,000 spaces. Workers and visitors from outside Bath, including in our own communities of Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Radstock, and the rural villages, must have better access to their jobs and local services. In turn, this will support the place the community wants Bath to be – one where the congestion is reduced and pedestrian and cycling access is improved, with space for public transport to move. The likely alternative is gridlock in a decade if these improvements, with others like better conventional bus routes and the bus rapid transit, do not go ahead."

A public exhibition giving details of the park and ride proposals will be held at the Guildhall on November 6, 7 and 8.

Read this article on the Bath Chronicle website.