Swindon's
second 'Park and Ride' has opened this morning.
The new £2 million facility is sited between Wroughton and Croft
Road and offers space for 652 cars.
The
scheme is part of the council's transport plan to encourage drivers
out of their cars and on to public transport in an effort to relieve
the traffic congestion in Old Town.
It is hoped the 'Park and Ride' scheme will be used by drivers who
travel into town from Devizes and from Junction 15 of the M4.
Wroughton
Park and Ride
The
facility offers a waiting room and a regular
bus service into town.
Buses leave the park every 10 minutes, and are fitted with equipment
that ensures that traffic lights along the route remain green until
the bus has passed.
Chairman Spickernell, from the Council for the Protection of Rural
England, however believes several smaller sites should have been
chosen:
"I think it's been sensitively landscaped and the bus shelter
is very good.
"But when you're coming over the bridge from Wroughton and
you look across, you see a lot of tarmac and then the Nationwide
building as a back drop and a sea of lights.
"For Wroughton it looks as though their rural buffer has been
eroded. It's a very unfortunate thing that this was the site - the
only site that could be chosen."
Six park and rides have been planned, but only two have been built.
Planners turned down a proposal for a third scheme near Junction
16 last year.
Swindon's Park and Ride is sited between Wroughton and Croft
Road.
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