View of proposed P&R from Solsbury Hill
The decision on the building of a new park and ride with 1,200 car parking spaces to the east of Bath is imminent. Its main objective is to reduce congestion and to help accommodate the additional traffic due to be generated by the 13,000 homes to be built in Bath in the next 15 years. However, the congestion reducing justification is unclear, as peak congestion at rush hour (8.30am) is not consistent with the peak Park and Ride usage in Bath of 12.00pm. We wonder whether there are not better ways of reducing congestion? As Piers Taylor, award winning local celebrity architect points out “The images that the council has produced, purporting to show how a park and ride… could be mitigated and screened, are grossly misleading and fly in the face of council members’ responsibility to tell the truth.”. Transition Bath wonders whether the proposed Park and Ride will have an unacceptable visual impact on the eastern gateway to Bath, our World Heritage Site and once built whether this lays the ground for the Joint West of England plan to build a freight distribution depot and industrial warehousing on the same site?
The council’s case is presented here. The decision is being made at a cabinet meeting at the Guildhall on the Wednesday 25th January at a council cabinet meeting from 5.30pm, also available via a webcast. It looks likely however that the decision has already been made for this scheme to go ahead, but if you have strong views on the subject it might be worth contacting your local councillor? The Bathampton Meadow Alliance who oppose the scheme will be holding a rally outside the Guildhall from 4.30pm on Wednesday.