Council Plan to Increase Traffic at Christmas

Free buses could bring Christmas shoppers to the city

 Lancaster City Council has announced a plan to encourage many more motorists to bring their cars into the city centre in the run up to Christmas. The proposal will apparently bring a "business boost" to the city whilst adding to congestion and pollution.

Councillor Jean Parr, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Planning and Placemaking said:

      "We have been offering free festive parking at our main car parks for some years now and this       festive season is no different. The aim is to encourage people to support local businesses and to shop in our town centres".

 Free parking will be available on Thursday evenings and Sundays from November 30th until Christmas Eve.

In previous years the Bus Users Group has attempted to get the council to match its offer to car drivers with a similar plan to give free bus travel to everyone in the District. We feel that this would provide a similar "business boost", without the associated congestion and pollution, whilst providing a choice to car drivers as to how they travel. It would also be a fairer scheme as everyone living on a bus route would benefit from it, whilst those without access to a bus service could still take advantage of the free parking.

The Council has always refused to contemplate free bus travel as it says that it "could not afford to provide it" whereas free car parking "costs us nothing".  The economic illiteracy of this approach should be obvious to everyone as giving away car parking spaces at a time of maximum demand for them has clear implications for council income. 

The Bus Users Group is disappointed that a council that has declared a climate emergency, has known air quality management issues in the city centre and has recently had to close its visitor information centres to save £250,000 can apparently afford to turn down income, whilst providing an incentive for shoppers to forsake bus services and use their cars instead.

Lancashire County Council has long had a reputation for a completely car-centric transport policy and its disappointing that Lancaster City Council is taking the same approach.