CALLS for Worcester’s park and ride to return have been knocked back by Conservative county councillors.
But Worcester councillor Matt Jenkins has vowed: “We’ll keep pushing for this.”
The Green Party’s Cllr Jenkins had put forward the idea of bringing back a city park and ride, 10 years after the Perdiswell scheme was scrapped by Worcestershire County Council.
His motion was defeated in Thursday’s (September 12) council meeting, which was held at Parkside Hall in Bromsgrove.
Cllr Jenkins said the scheme had initially been successful and the council had made a mistake in cutting it.
“It was an era of austerity with short-term thinking dominating and the narrative was that it was failing – that was not true,” he said.
Cllr Jenkins said park and ride schemes are “the norm elsewhere”.
“York has six, Bath has three and Oxford has five, and they cost between a third and a quarter of city centre parking.”
Labour councillor Richard Udall suggested rail park and ride should also be considered and was an “exciting option for reducing congestion and improving connectivity”.
Highways chief Marc Bayliss, speaking for the ruling Tory group, said: “The problem is this is about one part of the county. There are members thinking ‘this has nothing to do with me’.”
He said the council was waiting for guidance from the government before making any big planning decisions.
“We want to look at transport in its totality,” he said. “And congestion is worse in Evesham and Bromsgrove than it is in the city.”
Labour councillor Lynn Denham said: “This isn’t a parochial issue. Worcester is the county town with institutions all residents like to visit. Park and ride is very much missed within the city and beyond.”
Cllr Malcolm Victory (Green) said: “Worcester is the hub and should be the flagship. A park and ride scheme is a no-brainer.”
The scheme was voted down by Tory councillors, Reform UK’s Bill Hopkins and independent Mike Rouse.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting, Cllr Jenkins said the idea of bringing back the park and ride has been met with positive feedback from lots of residents.
“It works elsewhere so why not?” he said. “We’ll keep pushing for this. It’s a key area to improve congestion in the city.
“The Labour government seems to be far more positive about public transport and we have the local elections in May – the Conservatives have a big majority at the moment but that could be chipped away quite a lot.
“The government might even say ‘congestion is so bad in Worcester you have to do something with public transport’.”