At yesterday’s East Cambridgeshire District Council meeting as they met to set next year’s budget. I called for a stay of execution for Ely’s Angel Drove Park and Ride.

I wanted to give the service another chance to see if it can be successful by offering free parking on Saturday, good signage and with the bus pulling into the car park to pick up passengers instead of collecting from Tesco.

The Tories plan to axe the service in June because they claim low take up by passengers has meant it is not viable to continue.

But Lib Dems believe the service is essential to keep cars out of Ely city centre and allow businesses to grow and we were calling for it to be given a nine month trial from June.

We were asking for £12,000 to be made available in the budget for the trial. The money could come from the unexpected increase in the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive Grant of £39,000.

A really effective park and ride scheme, keeping cars out of the city centre and directing shoppers to the centre rather than Tesco, would be a useful way to grow Ely businesses. If it proves successful then everyone will see the benefit of keeping it.

We have to take action to rid Ely city centre of cars while at the same time offering people easy access. I don’t believe we have given this Park and Ride a fair chance and there is money available to find out whether it could work and prove a long-term solution.

Unfortunately the Tory administration was not prepared to listen or even to try a cheaper scheme

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