Park and Ride Planning Application in

Good news - with your help there have been improvements to the proposals but …

• users are still going to have to cross the A432 to get to the bus stop -
• It is likely to turn into a Council Office overflow car park

The plan is for 192 spaces, incl 13 disabled and 20 electric, one car club bay, 6 m/c and secure parking for 46 bicycles. We've attached the plans to this post.

Open from 6am to 10pm excluding bank holidays

This is much smaller than would be needed to allow for all the extra houses since the plans agreed in 2005, so there are real worries about whether it will be big enough.

Parking will £2.60 a day but free for those using the buses. So you won’t need to use the bus or train to park there. That means it is likely to get heavily used by people working in the Council offies next door, as that is desperately short of parking. So there is a real risk relatively few of the 192 spaces will be available for ACTUAL park and ride users.

The plan does show an on site bus lay-by, but there is STILL NO COMMITMENT commitment to actually getting the buses to go in so users are still going to have to cross the A432 to get to Bristol bound buses

The good news is that it WILL have a signal controlled pedestrian crossing over the A432 Badminton Rd - so we have won that battle thanks to your help in creating a strong community pressure.

You can check out the plans and add your views at

https://developments.southglos.gov.uk/online-applications/ - then put the reference P20/16166/R3F in the search box.

Photo - Stephen Williams, Ruth Davis, John Gawn, CLaire Young and Mike Drew trying out the road crossing to get to the bus stop from the proposed car park.

Park and Ride Buckpasss

Stephen Williams asks - do the Tories really expect us to cross this to get from the park and ride to the bus stop? They have to be joking

Remember all the press hype about a new park and ride by the Council office on Badminton Road? the one without a bus stop, or safe crossing to a bus stop? S Glos say they can't take buses actually to the park and ride, leaving people to run across the A432 to and from the bus stop opposite..... They blame the bus company. So the Lib Dem Focus Team tackled the bus company head on.

First Bus say that of course they would like to do take buses to the park and ride. They are blaming S Glos.

It all comes done to cash, and S Glos trying to do it on the cheap. Surely the whole point of a park and ride is that buses..... go to it??

Stephen Williams, Lib Dem candidate for Metro Mayor in next year's elections did a test run of getting to the bus stop on Monday. He can confirm first hand it is DANGEROUS (even during school holidays during covid). Sadly the current MetroMayor doesn't seem to get this. Just look at what they expect us to be able cross, without any lights to help... Who on earth will use a park and ride if they have to try to cross this to get to the bus stop??

Ruth Davis from the Lib Dem Focus Team has asked First Bus and S Glos to look again. Like a pub with no beer, a park and ride without a bus stop is a waste of money….

HALF a PARK AND RIDE for YATE?

We've won the long battle we have been waging to get our Park and Ride for Yate. But so far the Council is only offering a cheapstake version that has serious flaws.

Lib Dems got planning consent and funding back in 2006 but then the new Tory administration running S Glos spent the money elsewhere. We've been fighting since then to get our Park and Ride back.

FInally, there is progress but it is the cheapskate model. It is not what we were promised.

The proposal is for a far smaller park and ride than the original plan. Squeezed between the South Glos council offices and the solar panel park on the A432.

It won't have a bus service going into it - so users will have to dice with death crossing the A432 to the normal bus stop (and as of today S Glos is refusing to put in either a pedestrian crossing or lights).

And officials have not yet sorted out how they will stop the S Glos Council staff from filling it up every morning.

So, at last the principle has been accepted, the cash has now been restored to us, and something is going to happen. But unless S Glos sort out these problems we could be left with a costly white elephant/ council offices car park.

So your councillors had a meeting with S Glos this morning to raise all these concerns and to make it clear, we want a Park and Ride that works and is useful to residents. Not just a tick box on someone's election manifesto that said 'open park and ride' - it has to be one that works for local people and helps us all.

(It will have some good facilities, like electric car charging and secure cycle shelters, and we have asked for other things eg a pump and repair station - but the key issues of access to buses and size are simply not being addressed by S Glos).