We strongly support the need for Park-and-Ride facilities to the east of the City.
We prefer the site which has the greatest capacity and which is most potential for later expansion. On the information supplied that appears to be Site F. However, it is extremely difficult for the average citizen to evaluate the pros and cons of the three sites. An expert would take at least a day even given all the necessary data. The council should have carried out this evaluation, come to a conclusion and recommendation and put that out to consultation
The selected site should operate for 7 days a week until late, with secure overnight parking, to enable its use by evening visitors and those staying overnight in Bath. The public transport to and from the city centre should use low emission vehicles, and be inexpensive to use.
Our concern is pollution and its reduction in the short term. One of the factors that increases pollution in the city centre is people driving around the city seeking somewhere to park. While we applaud the plans to build more out of town parking, we also recognise that people need to and want to drive their cars into the city.
We therefore believe that it is important to have better planning for what to do with vehicles coming into the city that need to park. We would therefore like to see:
- More parking capacity in the city centre, perhaps by adding another layer above or below Charlotte Street
- An end to giving planning consent to hotel developments which have no parking provision
- A proper strategy for managing coaches visiting the city
- A firm principle that parking spaces cannot be removed without a plan to provide additional capacity elsewhere
- That on street parking should be primarily for residents’ use but with clear allocation of bays that businesses can use for their customer loading and collecting
Our research also shows that a key factor in reducing pollution from vehicles in the city centre is reducing the amount of stop start driving they do. This means removing unnecessary obstructions, for instance, reducing the number of traffic lights, and ensuring traffic lights are better coordinated to avoid the build-up of queues.