Council Intends to Stop Non-Park & Ride Motorists Using Onslow Car Park

Published on: 8 Aug, 2017
Updated on: 8 Aug, 2017

The passenger waiting room at Onslow Park & Ride has only recently been completed.

Guildford Borough Council (GBC) is to introduce measures to ensure that Onslow Park & Ride car park is not used by local workers from the Royal Surrey County Hospital, the University of Surrey and others who are not using the associated bus service to travel into the town centre.

Since the car park, situated on land owned by the university, commenced operation in 2013 it has been working below capacity and many shuttle buses run empty. Of those who do use the facility many are believed to be working nearby, rather than town centre visitors.

At the time the car park was being planned, local residents warned that without direct access from the A3 it was unlikely to attract motorists as they would have to spend time driving through the busy Egerton Road to get to the car park then wait for a bus which would take them back over part of the same busy route, on its way to the town centre.

Many of the shuttle buses run empty.

However, at the time, planners from GBC and the county council pointed out that if the funding available for the scheme was not used, it would be lost. The total cost of constructing the car park and making the associated road improvements was around £9 million.

The car park costs £300,000 annually to run. Motorists are charged £1.50 to travel on the shuttle buses that take them to and from the town centre but, despite warning notices, if they do not use the buses there is nothing to prevent them leaving the car park without any charge.

Although the barriers are in place, the exit ticket machine remains covered today (August 8). The barrier opens automatically as cars approach allowing all users to leave without proof that they have used the shuttle buses.

Questions have been raised as to why it has taken so long to get the barriers into operation and the passenger waiting room built.

In response to an email from Hon Alderman Bernard Parke, an Onslow resident, Tim Pilsbury, engineering manager at GBC, wrote today (August 8, 2017): “People will be able to park free of charge, but tickets will have to be validated on the bus before they will operate the exit barrier.

“We will be looking at how to prevent people from just getting on the bus to validate their tickets without using the park and ride. Maybe the validation machine could only work on the return journey. We will also be introducing a £20 charge for non-validated tickets.

“In short, we will be trying to ensure that the car park is only used for Park and Ride.”

The Royal Surrey County Hospital declined to comment.

Responses to Council Intends to Stop Non-Park & Ride Motorists Using Onslow Car Park

Mike Adams Reply

August 8, 2017 at 5:36 pm

Last week I used the Onslow Park & Ride for the first time. Having travelled in by bus a friend gave me a lift back.

So if ticket validation is going to be on the return journey, I won’t be using it a second time.
Martin Elliott Reply

August 8, 2017 at 5:39 pm

I believe, from council minutes/papers, it has always been a condition of the lease of the land from the university that car park is only for ‘Park & Ride’.

Why is not clear but it is easy to guess. Also easy to speculate why GBC has done little to enforce the condition, except by notices, when validation systems have always been available.

What is more fundamental is why GBC persists in a Park & Ride, bus and cycling ‘modal shift’ philosophy when borough residents, or even visitors from elsewhere, demonstrate no appetite for the change?
John Robson Reply

August 9, 2017 at 2:30 pm

The same university that has contravened its own conditions by using the tax payer funded Park & Ride as an overflow car park for free?

Hospital staff should be allocated a proportion of the car park for free.

Anyone else should be charged the going rate for a town centre car park.
John Perkins Reply

August 10, 2017 at 11:05 am

Might it be possible under the terms of the lease to charge a fixed £1.50 or so for entry and allow free use of the shuttle service on display of the ticket?
C Stevens Reply

August 10, 2017 at 3:46 pm

Has the university always owned the land now leased? It’s not possible that it was previously owned by the council, is it?

Ed: Jacqueline Mitchell’s book – The University of Surrey – A History of Shaping the Future, states: “…[Battersea] College (the forerunner of The University of Surrey] then determined on two locations: Stag Hill, just below Guildford Cathedral, for the principal university buildings, and Manor Farm, for playing fields and post-graduate institutions. Land would be acquired from Guildford Borough Council and the cathedral for the former, while the latter involved negotiations with tenant farmers and local housing associations.”
The land on which the Park and Ride is sited is that which used to be Manor Farm. It is possible that the land owner was the Onslow family who owned much of the land in the area, including that given to the cathedral and Onslow Village. Others may be able to confirm.