THE future of the park and ride service in Swindon has been thrust back into the spotlight exactly a year after the Groundwell Road site closed.

The town’s park and ride scheme at The Copse was mothballed by Swindon Borough Council for being a drain on resources and has never been opened again – despite rumours of a reprieve.

The decision caused outrage in the community and a campaign group, Save Park And Ride Kampaign (SPARK), was established in a bid to get the council to change it’s mind.

The leader of the Swindon Labour Group, Derique Montaut, who was also involved in last year's campaign to stop the park and ride from closing, said: “The Conservatives said that they would provide an alternative site for another park and ride, they said that the closure of Groundwell park and ride would not lead to traffic problems on its surrounding roads and, most importantly, they said that they wouldn’t just leave the Groundwell park and ride to rot.

“The regrettable one-year anniversary of the closure of Groundwell park and ride shows that the Conservatives were simply full of hot air and not a lot else on this issue.

“We need a transport system that encourages people to go to the town centre, not push them out to rival shopping outlets on the outskirts of the town.

“Because, let's not forget, it’s the council and the council taxpayers of Swindon who stand to benefit if our town-centre is thriving, through extra business rates and rent fees.

“I think the Conservatives’ year’s-worth of inaction over Groundwell park and ride has shown that they really have run out of ideas on how to govern this town and therefore they should open Groundwell park and ride, based on the blueprint the Labour Group outlined one year ago.”

Coun Peter Greenhalgh, portfolio holder for sustainability, strategic planning, property and transport, has rubbished Coun Montaut’s claims and said that the park and ride will continue to be mothballed because it was too expensive and under-used.

He said: “The park and ride site at Groundwell continues to be mothballed but has not been vandalised as Coun Montaut predicted.

“We are attracting people to the town centre and have a new parking strategy for the town centre which looks to improve parking there.

“We are saving £330,000 a year by not operating the park and ride and that will allow us to look at reducing parking charges in the town centre and Old Town.

“We have extremely good bus routes in and out of the town centre.

“Clearly Coun Montaut thinks that the Groundwell site was successful, but even Thamesdown transport scrapped its bus service there because it was so under-used.

“A park and ride scheme could still be possible for the town under the new strategy but we are still trying to recover our economy which was badly damaged under the former Labour government.”