Conservative councillors are to propose a cross-party review of potential sites for an East of Bath Park & Ride, at a B&NES Council meeting on Thursday 12th November.
This meeting will see councillors debate the best way forward for the long-discussed Park & Ride project.
The proposals for a Park & Ride on the east of Bath forms part of the Council’s wider strategy to improve transport and tackle congestion in the city, which also includes the prospect of an A36-A46 link road, improvements to local rail services and investment in more dedicated cycle routes.
However, a recent consultation undertaken by the Council revealed that respondents were almost equally divided between those who support the project and those who object to the plans.
Within Bath the proposals gained the support of 66.2% of respondents. However in the Bathavon North area, which includes the villages to the east of the city, 74.8% of respondents stated that they did not support the proposal.
As a result of the large number of strong views expressed during the consultation, the Council’s Conservative leadership decided that the matter should be discussed at a meeting of all Councillors to agree the best way forward.
Councillor Tim Warren, the Conservative Leader of B&NES Council, said: “We continue to believe that this Park & Ride has an important role to play in improving transport, tackling congestion and growing our local economy.
“We will therefore be asking Council to reaffirm its support for building an East of Bath Park & Ride at Thursday’s meeting.
“However we are not, and have never been, dogmatic about where this Park & Ride should be located.
“It should simply be somewhere that is feasible to deliver, produces the necessary transport benefits, and can be as screened from view as possible.
“We are therefore proposing that the options are reviewed by a cross-party group so that everybody can be confident that all potential options have been properly explored before a final site decision is made.
“We cannot afford another four years of no progress in addressing our area’s traffic problems, and so believe that a decision over where to locate the Park & Ride needs to be taken early in the new year, once all the options have been considered and taking account of the recent consultation results.”