Sir – Damian Fantato’s article (Feature, July 25) on 40 years of Oxford’s park and rides was an interesting reminder of how and why the service was born.
Undoubtedly, it has done a great deal to bring commuters, shoppers and tourists into Oxford and help to reduce the level of congestion on the arterial roads.
The recent proposals to have charges for stays above 11 hours are to be welcomed, especially at Thornhill.
We hope they will deter people from using the park-and-ride sites for visiting London, London airports or other major centres outside Oxfordshire and taking parking spaces away from people wishing to use the service into Oxford.
However, a key selling point of park-and-rides when they were introduced was that the parking, at least for standard hours, would be free. So the charging by Oxford City Council for parking at its three park-and-ride sites and the plan by the county council to follow suit and introduce charges for parking its two sites for up to 11 hours goes against this concept. It will dissuade many potential visitors from coming to Oxford.
Parking is free at the park-and-ride sites in Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter, Reading, Stratford-upon-Avon, Swindon, and York, many of our competing tourist and shopping cities and towns. Why are we different? We have already slipped from fourth, a few years ago, to seventh of the most visited UK tourist destinations and these measures will not help in reversing that trend.
The two councils should reconsider their strategy on these charges. Looking to the future of park-and-rides, we believe the city and county councils should work with the other district councils to develop park-and-ride sites on the edge of market towns.
Graham Jones, Rescue Oxford
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