New long-stay park and ride for Oxford
A new £30 parking charge is set to be approved for an Oxford park and ride, extending the maximum stay to over a fortnight.
A new £30 parking charge is set to be approved for an Oxford park and ride, extending the maximum stay to over a fortnight.
Thornhill Park and Ride, which is served by a 24-hour airport service to Heathrow and Gatwick, could soon offer eight-day and 15-day tariffs aimed at airport travellers.
County transport boss Gareth Epps has recommended approving the new long-stay parking charges of £15 and £30 at a meeting on Thursday, October 8.
A consultation on the plan, which took place over the summer, received 91 per cent support across 31 responses.
A council report describes Oxford Bus Company as “strongly supporting” the plan – the company runs The Airline bus service, for which it charges upwards of £25 for a one-way ticket from Oxford to Heathrow, or £30 from Oxford to Gatwick.
Responding to the consultation more widely, it said: “The responses show a strong level of support for introducing longer-stay parking tariffs at Thornhill Park and Ride, particularly from people who use the Airline coach services to Heathrow and Gatwick.
“Many respondents felt the proposal would make coach travel more practical and attractive by removing the need to take a taxi, travel into Oxford city centre, or drive all the way to the airport.
“Several comments described the proposal as convenient, long overdue, and helpful for residents who live outside central Oxford or in areas with limited public transport connections to Thornhill.”
Concerns included fears about impact on park and ride spaces for existing users, protection of spots for disabled users, security of the vehicles, and a request for a cap on long-stay provision.
An objector warned: “The purpose of the parking spaces at Oxford’s P&R sites is to ease traffic congestion in the city and to encourage use of more sustainable transport options (public – buses vs private – cars).
“Opening up this site to long-stay parking for people who are taking flights isn’t encouraging sustainable travel (short-haul flights being the worst carbon emitters), it’s doing the opposite, while also depriving those who rely on P&R parking spaces so that they can access the buses that get them to work/ whenever in a sustainable way.
“This is the council trying to make money from ultimately unsustainable travel (flying) , and those who need and want to use more sustainable options (travelling by bus into work/ city centre etc.) will no longer be so able to do so.”
The council officer said that even on Oxford University open days, which “are consistently among the busiest periods of the year for park and ride usage”, Thornhill “continues to retain a substantial level of spare parking capacity”.