Controversial park and ride set to be scrapped
NEWMARKET’S park and ride car park, which is currently being used as free parking by retail park workers, looks set to be scrapped by councillors.
The Willie Snaith Road facility, which was originally set up in the wake of the introduction of car parking charges in the town in 2006, has been costing around £26,000 a year to run - cash which has come out of money paid to Forest heath District Council by Waitrose as part of a Section 106 legal agreement for long stay car parking.
On Tuesday, members of Forest Heath District Council’s community services committee are due to consider a confidential report recommending the authority ditches the service.
The report said that in recent months the car park, which is on land owned by and leased from Tesco at £6,000 a year, has been used by workers who could no longer park all day at the Oaks retail park because of recently introduced parking restrictions .
“This is believed to be the main reason for the sudden increase in the use of the car park,” said the report.
It added: “The number of people who actually park their vehicles and then proceed to use the bus service as originally intended, appears negligible.”
Andrew Claydon, the council’s strategic director (resources), concluded that although the number of people using the car park over the past six months had increased ten-fold it was not being used for its intended purpose.
He said the council, which currently receives no income from the car park, could consider leasing parking spaces to businesses in the area but before it could do that it would have to spend about £100,000 resurfacing and improving the facility so this would be possible.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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