Park and ride fees 'could put off families'

Councillor Marcus Harrington is among those who fear £3 per person could put off park and ride users. Councillor Marcus Harrington is among those who fear £3 per person could put off park and ride users.

USERS of Colchester’s planned park and ride could pay up to £3 per person.

The proposal was slammed by councillors who said it would put off families from using the congestion-busting scheme.

But officers working on the initiative said park and ride was mainly aimed at single passenger commuters, and families would be expected to still use town centre car parks.

  • Find out more details about the proposed scheme and read reaction in Thursday's Gazette.

Comments(14)

mummy250271 says...
5:04pm Thu 28 Feb 13

why would you pay £3.00 per person when you can park a car of 5 people for £2.50, somebody hasn't worked out the math very well !!!

Colonel Kurtz says...
6:08pm Thu 28 Feb 13

Own goal for Colchester council.

SOMETHING2SAY says...
6:33pm Thu 28 Feb 13

mummy.....its " maths " and id like to know where you park for £ 2.50....there has to be overheads...a driver / a bus / fuel !!

MacinTyler95 says...
6:44pm Thu 28 Feb 13

Doesn't surprise me. Costs me £2.60 to get from Harwich Road to the town centre. £3.20 return. It's ridiculous!!!

wellnow says...
7:10pm Thu 28 Feb 13

It is all about money why be surprised at the cost?

hughie-s says...
10:06pm Thu 28 Feb 13

SOMETHING2SAY wrote:
mummy.....its " maths " and id like to know where you park for £ 2.50....there has to be overheads...a driver / a bus / fuel !!
mummy.....its " maths "


Perhaps she's American?

Boris says...
10:40pm Thu 28 Feb 13

hughie-s wrote:
SOMETHING2SAY wrote:
mummy.....its " maths " and id like to know where you park for £ 2.50....there has to be overheads...a driver / a bus / fuel !!
mummy.....its " maths "


Perhaps she's American?
If she was American she'd call herself "mommy". She must be one of the millions of Brits who speak and write mid-atlantic English, saying for example 'til instead of till, and maybe don't even realise they are using a foreign variant of English.

Boris says...
10:43pm Thu 28 Feb 13

Now for the actual story.
.
Cambridge has the best park and ride service in the eastern counties, and at present they charge £2.50 per adult. Each adult can take 3 children aged 5 to 16 for free. Children under 5 travel free. OAPs travel free. Parking is free. If pricing is right, P and R can be a success.

friday_woods says...
8:09am Fri 1 Mar 13

Not Mr Harrington's best pose I'd wager. He looks like some Romanian beggar.

TheCaptain says...
9:26am Fri 1 Mar 13

friday_woods wrote:
Not Mr Harrington's best pose I'd wager. He looks like some Romanian beggar.
Except someone has given him some money

TheCaptain says...
9:36am Fri 1 Mar 13

Boris wrote:
Now for the actual story.
.
Cambridge has the best park and ride service in the eastern counties, and at present they charge £2.50 per adult. Each adult can take 3 children aged 5 to 16 for free. Children under 5 travel free. OAPs travel free. Parking is free. If pricing is right, P and R can be a success.
Parking in Cambridge itself is very expensive, so Park and Ride at any price will be way cheaper.

I was there Wednesday night and still had to pay £1 an hour. In Colchester that would have been 50p.

Obviously no P and R at that time though

bonafide says...
12:16pm Fri 1 Mar 13

park n ride is a waste of time - if you want to boost numbers entering Colchester then reduce parking fee's, and remove parking restrictions, the reason people go to out of town shopping centres is that you can park for free - come on Colchester buck the trend and get people back into Colchester Town centre.

TheCaptain says...
12:44pm Fri 1 Mar 13

bonafide wrote:
park n ride is a waste of time - if you want to boost numbers entering Colchester then reduce parking fee's, and remove parking restrictions, the reason people go to out of town shopping centres is that you can park for free - come on Colchester buck the trend and get people back into Colchester Town centre.
I think you may be missing the point. The aim of the park & ride if you read the report is for commuters.

So the aim is get people off the town roads at the busiest times - starting and finishing work - so that the roads move quicker.

Obviously we need to see if that works or not.

Boris says...
3:02am Sat 2 Mar 13

TheCaptain wrote:
Boris wrote:
Now for the actual story.
.
Cambridge has the best park and ride service in the eastern counties, and at present they charge £2.50 per adult. Each adult can take 3 children aged 5 to 16 for free. Children under 5 travel free. OAPs travel free. Parking is free. If pricing is right, P and R can be a success.
Parking in Cambridge itself is very expensive, so Park and Ride at any price will be way cheaper.

I was there Wednesday night and still had to pay £1 an hour. In Colchester that would have been 50p.

Obviously no P and R at that time though
That is true, the last buses back to their P&R car parks leave about 8 pm, which ruins it for things like evening meetings or theatres, concerts etc. You could of course have taken the train but it takes almost 2 hours to reach Colchester.
Park and Ride is successful in Cambridge precisely because city centre car parks are so expensive. Also, visitors to Cambridge go there to see the museums and the fine old college buildings, rather than to shop, so they are not burdened down by bulky bags, and therefore happy to go on the bus. Colchester has very little to offer the tourist, other than shopping, so P&R may not catch on here.

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