The first stage in a plan to get more tourist coaches out of Bath city centre begins soon with works to provide long stay coach parking at the Odd Down Park & Ride site beginning on 16 April, 2018.
The scheme will provide 29 coach parking spaces within the northeast corner of the Park & Ride site.
Alteration works will be carried out by North Midland Construction to separate the coach parking from the car parking area together with some modifications to the internal Park & Ride road as well as improvements to the pedestrian routes connecting with the roundabout. The construction works will be phased to minimise disruption and so that the Odd Down Park & Ride will remain operational throughout.
The Council expects the new facility to be operational this summer. In the short term, coaches will continue to drop off/pick up in Bath city centre with the Odd Down site available for coaches to layover.
However, the longer term vision is for coaches that are bringing visitors to the city for more than a few hours to drop off and pick up from the Odd Down coach park, thereby alleviating congestion and supporting the council’s intentions of improving air quality in the city centre.
Councillor Mark Shelford (Conservative, Lyncombe), Cabinet Member for Transport & Environment, said: “The creation of coach parking at Odd Down forms the first part of a phased approach to delivering a long-term plan for management of coaches in Bath city centre. By providing a convenient and secure place for coaches to park up, Bath city centre will remain an attractive tourist destination while also alleviating coach parking in unofficial locations on roads around the city.”
Councillor Paul Myers (Conservative, Midsomer Norton North), Cabinet Member for Economic & Community Regeneration, said: “Delivery of this new facility is part of the Council’s plans to deliver Bath Quays whilst supporting the important visitor economy of the city. This work will ultimately lead to the development of Bath Quays a new space for home-grown and growing businesses. It is an important next phase in our work to secure more homes and high-value jobs in the city for future generations, helping us to meet one of our priorities.”
For your information:
Bath Quays is the Council’s flagship regeneration project to create a new and vibrant commercial quarter for Bath’s flourishing businesses in the heart of the city. It is being designed to address the gap in the provision of grade A office space in the city and will allow existing businesses to expand and new businesses to relocate to the city. In addition to creating economic growth and new high-wage jobs for Bath, this exciting project will offer new homes and more attractive, useable public space alongside the river.
Over the next few years, the area will be transformed requiring a new arrangement for coach visitors. The decision to use Odd Down Park & Ride for long stay coach parking was adopted in February 2018.
Historically, coach parking was provided at Riverside Coach Park, however that site was reduced in size in 2016 and changed to drop-off/pick-up only, to allow essential flood risk mitigation works to be undertaken in order to protect properties from flooding and facilitate regeneration of Bath Quays.
By implementing this, the new facility replaces the current provision at Weston Island that has been underutilised by coach drivers which has resulted in an increase of coaches parking in residential areas. Providing a dedicated coach park with driver facilities should discourage drivers from parking on street in unauthorised areas. In addition the introduction of TRO’s in areas of unofficial coach parking will allow parking enforcement officers to issue penalty notices and fines.
