Lib-Dem Councillors have welcomed last week’s announcement from B&NES Council that the East of Bath Park and Ride scheme on Bathampton Meadows has been dropped, accusing the local authority of wasting £2.4m of taxpayers’ money on the divisive project.

Councillor Neil Butters (Bathavon South), Lib-Dem spokes on Transport said: “It is disgraceful that the Conservatives spent over two years trying to force this discredited and unworkable scheme down residents’ throats. They have known for eighteen months that Highways England did not support locating a Park and Ride on the Meadows and yet only now is ‘access’ cited as a reason for not proceeding. Whilst we’re all relieved that the Conservative administration has finally seen sense on the Meadows, we now need to thoroughly scrutinise their ‘new’ plan, which has presumably been cobbled together in the week since the Cabinet resignations.”

Councillor Alison Millar, (Bathavon North) added: “This is absolutely the right decision. I would like to pay tribute to the many campaigners from various groups who have been fighting against development of the Meadows, some of them for almost a decade.”