While your Director has been away l hear B&NES councillors have agreed to work together on options for a Park & Ride to the east of Bath, as part of a series of measures designed to alleviate congestion in the city.
At a full meeting of the Council, it was decided that options for a number of sites would be reviewed and assessed by a cross-party group of councillors, who will present their recommendations to the Council’s Communities, Transport and Environment PDS Panel and the Cabinet.
Councillor Anthony Clarke (Conservative, Lansdown), Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “We heard from public speakers at the meeting who shared the general acknowledgement that there is too much traffic in Bath and something needs to be done.
“We remain committed to an east of Bath Park & Ride as it has an important role in improving transport, tackling congestion and supporting our local economy, as set out in the ‘Getting Around Bath’ Transport Strategy. The new Park & Ride will complement other measures we’re actively pursuing as part of our wider transport strategy; including the A36/A46 link road – to remove through-traffic out of Bath – and complementary traffic measures to manage demand.
“We look forward to seeing the recommendations that come back from the cross-party working group, which will assist the Cabinet in coming to a decision early next year.”
This followed the release of the consultation on the proposals which showed those for and against were pretty well equally divided.
Based on responses from those who supplied an identifiable postcode, Bath and North East Somerset residents were 51.5% in favour and 48.5% against the proposal to build a Park & Ride east of Bath.
The majority of respondents from within the City of Bath (66.2%) were in favour of a new Park & Ride to the east.
The majority of respondents from within the Bathavon North area were against the provision of a Park & Ride (74.8%).
When including those from outside BANES and those where only partial postcodes or no postcodes were given, the result was almost equally divided between those that supported a new park and ride in the east of the City (49%) and those that opposed it (51%).
Three sites were suggested for the Park & Ride. Of those who gave their views on a preferred location – 54% chose site B (west of Mill Lane), 31% identified site A (east of A4/A46 Junction) and 15% chose site F (east of Mill Lane).
· More than 4,000 respondents completed the survey.
