York Guides

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) will tomorrow call on local authorities to rethink traffic policies at The Park and Ride 2005 conference.

In a report issued today, the CPRE argues that instead of solving traffic problems, many schemes simply shift congestion from town and city centres into the countryside.

Paul Hamblin, CPRE's head of transport policy, said: "Superficially park and ride schemes look an attractive option for urban areas.

"Traffic generates noise, pollution and is an intrusion for many areas. But out of sight should not mean out of mind – the problem is simply being shifted to the edge of our urban areas and to the countryside next door.
"We need to reduce traffic levels overall and improve public transport closer to where people live to provide genuine transport choices."

But the CPRE's criticism was rejected by local authorities in Yorkshire and other groups who said park and ride schemes were important to improve the environment, and pointing out that many of the sites being criticised are not in green belt.

There are 14 sites across Yorkshire's main cities with a total capacity for 5,313 cars.

York has five park and ride sites, four of which are on green belt land, although one formed part of the redevelopment of the previous hospital site and another was part of a development site.

Ann Reid, City of York Council's executive member for planning and transport, denied the sites intruded into the countryside. "In York the park and ride sites are intercepting traffic that would be there anyway and would have continued into the city centre, creating congestion and air quality problems," she said.

"The balance that York has successfully achieved has been to attract more than two million passengers a year to park and ride who would otherwise have driven into the city."

Other local authorities said they were not damaging countryside because their park and ride sites were built on brownfield sites.

Sheffield has five park and ride schemes, all served by the supertram. South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive manages four of the sites and they are used by around 1,400 cars each day, generating almost £1.5m pounds a year between them.

A spokesman for the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive said: "These sites are located in the optimum position to encourage people to park and ride, and with over 7,000 vehicles using the sites each week, they are making a big contribution to keeping vehicles out of the city and also encouraging people to choose public transport."

Hull has three park and ride sites on brownfield land. A council spokeswoman said it was not a great revenue generator for Hull City Council as most of the money wen t to contractors.

She added: "We note the campaign and we will look at it with interest."

Leeds only has one Park and Ride site in King Lane, which is also not green belt.

Tony Bosworth, transport campaigner for Friends of the Earth said: "Park and ride has a place in helping to sort out transport problems but it has to be designed properly.

"In places like York it is good because it is an historic centre with not much parking and the scheme boosts the city's economic viability. But in other places you have to be careful that it doesn't take anything away from other local transport or encourage more development on green field sites."

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