Lib Dem's fresh call for park & ride
May 15, 2009 12:00 AM
By Ann-Marie Canavan - acanavan@berksmedia.co.uk in The Royal Borough Observer
By Ann-Marie Canavan - acanavan@berksmedia.co.uk in The Royal Borough Observer
BANK holiday mayhem on the roads has led to renewed calls for a park and ride scheme by Windsor Liberal Democrats.
The traffic jams which brought the town to a halt on Bank Holiday Monday are a result of a lack of parking facilities according to MP hopeful Julian Tisi.
Delays were caused when record numbers visited Windsor Racecourse and tourists flocked to Legoland. Now the Lib Dems are calling for a long-term solution to be found.
Mr Tisi, who works in Maidenhead Road where one of the jams started, said: "Windsor's Victorian Streets are struggling to cope with the traffic.
"The events of May Day showed the need for a proper long term solution to traffic and parking around Windsor. The Liberal Democrats believe that the solution rests with an M4 Park and ride which takes traffic out of the centre of Windsor, Eton and Datchet and puts it back on the M4 where it better belongs.
"The M4 park and ride was expected to attract funding from the Olympic Delivery Agency and had already got funding from the South East Regional Assembly, so that very little capital cost would have been paid by the borough."
However, furious transport boss Colin Rayner has hit back. He said: "If they (Lib Dems) want a park and ride scheme in Windsor then let them put it in their manifesto for 2011.
"It will allow the people of Eton and Windsor to decide if they want it. I can't believe the Liberal Democrats want to tarmac over 20 acres of beautiful meadows.
"They should stop acting like spoiled brats and try to work with the council rather than just moaning and putting out press releases that are as interesting as my children's story books."
[Lib Dem note: The plan to tarmac over 20 acres of Green Belt Meadows was actually contained in a Cabinet Report submitted by Colin Raynor himself to the Council's Cabinet in November 2007. Minutes of both that Cabinet meeting and the preceding Scrutiny Panel show that the plan was not supported by Colin Raynor, the Conservatives or Lib Dem Councillors. Instead the Lib Dems called for the council to go away and produce an alternative scheme for the M4 Park & Ride, however the Conservatives decided to abandon it instead]