Row threatened to put the brakes on Park and Ride

Maidstone came within a hair’s breadth of losing its Park and Ride this week, as the borough’s two main political groups fought each other to a standstill over different approaches on what to do about the “problem”.

The meeting had been called to discuss the service and parking charges and began with a recommendation Park and Ride continued to be funded for seven years and the frequency and duration of buses improved – but it ended with a much-reduced commitment to the scheme.

All members of the council’s strategic planning committee agreed that the current offering was failing, costing about £242,000 in subsidy each year and attracting woefully few users.

Liberal Democrats argued it was worth having one final go to increase use with a raft of improvements designed to increase use of the two remaining depots at London Road and Willington Street, though officers predicted this could increase the subsidy to £424,000 a year.

The Tories thought it better to shut down Park and Ride when the current bus contract expires in May, convert the sites to ordinary car parks and hope bus operators might run a commercial service to them.

Cllr Fran Wilson (Lib Dem), leader of the council, told colleagues it would be a scandal to abandon Park and Ride when the council had only just approved the Local Plan and Integrated Transport Strategy in which Park and Ride was a key element.

“We would have no integrity,” she said.

Cllr David Burton ( Con) countered it would be a “scandal” to impose a £424,000 cost on taxpayers.

The Lib Dem proposal was defeated on the casting vote of the chairman, Cllr Burton, after the only independent member on the committee, Cllr Steve Munford, abstained.

However, the Conservative motion was then defeated when Cllr Munford voted with the Lib Dems.

That left Cllr Munford to propose his own motion, which was carried.

Park and Ride would continue for one year, with buses running later until 7pm, but with plans to increase the bus frequency, to every 15 minutes, abandoned to save money.

A decision on whether to “rebalance” town centre parking charges compared with those at the Park and Ride sites, making town parking more expensive, was postponed until a further report had been received.